On the recordFebruary 7, 2018
Madam President, we are very pleased by this bipartisan work and what this will mean for our country. I thank both leaders for their work. Secure Elections Madam President, I want to finish the remarks that I started before the leaders took the floor pertaining to another issue that is very important to this country, and that is the issue of the elections in 2018. I mentioned the importance of the bill that Senator Lankford and I are leading, along with Senators Harris and Graham, that would give-- along with House support, Republican and Democratic support--some much needed resources to the States to help them with their equipment. Many of the States have not updated their election equipment in over 10 years. I also mentioned the reliable backup measures that we are going to need for things like a paper ballot system. Ten of our States don't have that. If they were hacked, there would be no backup to prove what had happened. That must change. Third, we have to make sure our elections are free from foreign influence campaigns. We know that the Russian disinformation reached more than 126 million Americans through Facebook alone. And while $1.4 billion was spent on online political ads in 2016, we still don't know how much Russia actually used to purchase those ads, although we do know they bought Facebook ads in rubles to influence the 2016 election. Today, online platforms are dwarfing broadcast, satellite, and cable providers.…





