On the recordOctober 23, 2019
It is an honor to serve beside Mr. Davis. Mr. Chairman, I rise today with my adamant opposition to H.R. 4617, otherwise known as the SHIELD Act. I think my Republican colleagues would agree that this bill is misleading at best and should be more effectively monikered as the First Amendment suppression act. Simply put, this bill is an extension of House Democrats' efforts to federalize the election process away from the States by substantially restricting free speech through governmental overreach. Furthermore, it does not actually do anything further to secure our elections from foreign interference. In the buildup to the 2016 election, Russian operatives broke many existing U.S. laws in their attempt to spread misinformation. Nothing in SHIELD would provide additional resources to law enforcement officials to pursue these foreign actors. Additionally, this bill will create a chilling effect on free speech by punishing organizations that have nothing to do with politics, and it mandates Federal overreach on a substantial scale. The SHIELD Act even gives the Federal Government the duty of determining what qualifies as a legitimate news source. To combat this recklessness, I actually offered a commonsense amendment that Democratic leadership would not consider for debate. It, simply enough, would have struck the word ``legitimate'' from the section because it is vague, overbroad, and open to subjective interpretation.…
