Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the gentleman. These are agencies that are depended upon to give regular order. Oversight is important, but I…”

“I thank the gentleman. These are agencies that are depended upon to give regular order. Oversight is important, but I would make the argument that stifling, denying, demolishing, or destroying is not order. Now, I had an amendment that I think is crucial. It is to provide an exception under this bill for regulations that help prevent cyber attacks on election processes or institutions. Mr. Chairman, not only have we found with much profoundness that a foreign entity, in this instance Russia, maybe it might be Iran, maybe it might be some other country, intruded into the democratic process of elections. I am glad Senator Graham said this is not Republicans or Democrats. This is about the integrity of the election system. And why we were hesitant to make this amendment in order, because there is no stopping of the peaceful transfer of government. The American people see to that process. Thank God for our love of democracy. We are able to express our opposition in many different ways. But there is no doubt there was not only intrusion, there was skewing from one candidate versus another. There are prints--this is public knowledge--that have been able to be tracked to suggest who, what, and what country, and how far up the chain to Mr. Putin that it went to. So my amendment, I think, was constructive. Why would we be reluctant to debate it? Why would we be reluctant to acknowledge the intelligence report assessing Russian activities and intentions in the recent U.S. elections?…”