Unfortunately, the aftermath of the 2020 election demonstrated that even when an election is highly secure, misinformation can produce devastating consequences for our democratic system of government.

This is a major existential threat to our democracy, and I look forward to hearing from this panel to see how we might start to rebuild faith in democratic institutions.

At the end of the day, we made enormous progress.

So much has changed since this committee held its first dedicated election security hearing in 2019, which was already about 2 years too late.

We have not been able to enact this important legislation, but we will continue to fight, as the consequences of failure on this issue are simply too high.

I applaud Chairwoman Clarke for her efforts to authorize CISA's disinformation efforts, particularly its Rumor Control website to debunk misinformation promptly.

Despite multiple requests by the committee Democrats to hold hearings on election security, the Republican Chairman largely declined to do so.

We have seen people spread lies about the integrity of our elections and use them to justify new restrictive voter laws that do nothing to enhance voter confidence.

If people are convinced that an election result is illegitimate--no matter how baseless that claim may be--we have seen first-hand the violence it can produce.

Still, Democrats got to work. The Democratic Task Force on Election Security worked to find solutions and make investments to help State and local officials upgrade and improve systems.

Fortunately, there is another way, as reflected in the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act that the House passed last week.

The past few years has been a troubling time for our democracy.