Authorized to declare a recess at any time. Pursuant to Committee Rule 4 and 2h of rule 11 the chair may postponefurther proceedings today when a recorded vote is ordered on the question of approving a measure on adopting the amendment. Ms. Lofgren we will consider the securing americas federal election act, a targeted bill to modernize our nations infrastructure and respond to the ongoing attacks in our democracy. As we all should know and appreciate, our country suffered as special counsel mueller said, multiple system attic efforts to interfere in our election in the 2016 president ial election. When outsiders medical in our elections, its an attack in our country and cannot be staged to defend against the sophisticated cyberattacks of state actors on their own. While we have made modest progress to bolster our defenses, it is clear from our Intelligence Community and host of independent experts from across the political spectrum that more must be done. Our state and local governments need the resources, knowhow and support to harden our election infrastructure before americans head to the polls. In little over 200 days, New Hampshire will hold the first primary election of the 2020 election cycle. We must act now. This we know is not a partisan perspective, quote the warning lights are blinking red, unquote. That is not my assessment but the administrations director of National Intelligence, dan coates speaking about foreign attacks on our elections a little under a year ago. We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep uping their game. Yet again, that is not my analysis but the administrations own f. B. I. Director, chris to havier wray who said the adversaries treated it as a dress rehearsal for the big show of the 2020 president ial elections. Expand risk limiting audits, equipping our states with the systems needed to ensure the accuracy of the vowtalt in an efficient manner, authorize a 600 million Election Assistance CommissionGrant Program to assist in securing election infrastructure while providing states with 175 million in biannual sustainment funding to help maintain election infrastructure. This initial 600 million is being appropriated by the Financial Services and general government accounting appropriations bill. It will foster accountability for Election Technology vendors, creating a qualified election infrastructure vendor designation and muchneeded cybersecurity deadlines and implement cybersecurity safeguards to protect our systems from attack, including prohibition on wireless communication devices and prohibition on election system internet interconnectivity. Ultimately, the safe act will improve the resilience of the election, a goal we all share. Together we need to work as a congress to counter attacks on elections. And i now recognize Ranking Member davis for any Opening Statement he may have. Mr. Davis thank you, madam chair. Thank you, all, for being here today. Our election infrastructure is aging and at risk. Congress should Work Together in a bipartisan way to put a solution on the table to address this problem. Election security should not be a partisan issue, and im frankly disappointed that our majority chose not to work with our republican colleagues, all three of us on this committee, for that bipartisan solution to strengthen our nations Election Security and instead they decided to put forth legislation that stands no chance of being signed into law. Its disappointing for the American People who deserves a bill to allow them to trust in our election system and have their votes preserved and protected. During the debate in this committee on h. R. 1, the majority insisted that the bill contain serious Election Security components. If thats the case, why are we here . H. R. 1 fell flat in the media and with public opinion. Now were here discussing h. R. 2722, another bill aimed at federally mandating elections. This is simply more of the same. What we arent going to hear about today is the work done last congress to provide funding for election infrastructure and to create unprecedented Cooperation Among the states and federal stakeholders. Hence, the result, not a single instance has been reported of interference in the 2018 mid term elections which experienced record mid term turnout. Congress role is to assist states to strengthen their Election Security, not create a federal takeover of election systems. Thats why i introduced, along with my colleagues, mr. Walker and mr. Loudermilk, the Election Security assistance act, that will provide assistance to states in updating their aging and vulnerable election infrastructure, empower state officials to provide secure elections, and provide Additional Resources for improving cybersecurity. These are what i was asked to do by my Election Officials who are a Bipartisan Group of folks that work to secure our elections at the local level in the 13th district of illinois. Every democrat who every democrat and every republican county clerk and election official in my district who came to a meeting told me these are their priorities. A fundamental right of our nation is the ability to choose our leaders. The American People deserve to have that right protected. We should secure and protect that right without partisan politics. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. Ms. Lofgren thank you. At this point id ask that the Opening Statements of all other members be included in the record, without objection. I now call up h. R. 2722. The clerk shall report the title of the legislation. The clerk will report the title. The clerk h. R. 272, providing Financial Support and enhance and security used to carry out carry out elections and for other purposes. Ms. Lofgren without objection, the First Reading of the bill is dispensed with and without objection the bill is open for amendment at any point. The chair recognizes herself to offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute. The amendment has been made available in advance and is in front of each member. The clerk will designate the amendment. The clerk the amendment in the nature of a substitute to h. R. 2722 offered by ms. Lofgren of california. Section 1, short title, table of contents. Short title. This act may be cited as the ms. Lofgren without objection, the amendment will be considered as read and be considered as original text for purposes of the amendment and shall be open for amendment at any point. I would like to take a moment here to explain what is in the amendment. As you know, we worked hard and we did have disagreements on h. R. 1, but we had less sagreement about the need to secure our infrastructure. And i think the remaining disagreement, and we did have a substantial efforts to reach agreement. In large part the disagreement is whether we mandate whats in this bill or whether we work in a different way with carrots more than sticks. Ill let mr. Davis speak later if he thinks there are additional matters. You know, it occurs to me that the russians had attacked with military weapons, we wouldnt say, well, lets let each state and county figure out how to counter that. The russians attacked us, and next election, it could be the chinese. Theyre not too happy with what were doing right now. Others. It could be other international ctors or even nonstate actors. Given the nature and severity of that attack on our country, i believe its important, really imperative that we as a nation respond, which is why we have proposed this bill and id like to explain the additional measures that are in the managers amendment. First, fostering accountability for Election Technology vendors. It creates a qualified election infrastructure vendor designation in conjunction with d. H. S. To craft cybersecurity guidelines and require vendors to follow those guidelines. This includes agreeing to report any known or suspect cybersecurity incidents involving election infrastructure and grants would only be permitted for those qualified vendors. We also include specific cybersecurity standards to apply to paper, ballot or optical scanning Voting Systems. There will be another set of standards applying to ballot marking devices. The requirements are that the device is built in a manner where it is me cancally impossible for the device to add or change the votes on a printed or marked ballot. Consistents of hardware certified by the department of Homeland Security and the device is not capable of tabulating votes. It requires Voting Machines be manufactured in the United States. I think is enormously important requirement. And also, because we know that we have a Disability Community that has an absolute right to vote, even if they are not able to do to mark with a pencil, we have the capability to meet their needs. We require that the use of software to hardware for which information is disclosed by the manufacturer be open source. And we also prohibit wireless communication devices. We found and have seen reports from the f. B. I. That we had Voting Systems connected to wireless communication systems. That is just a night mayor. So we require that is just a nightmare. O we Internet Connectivity. We think this is a sound measure and we think its important to proceed a pace we have 17 days before the august recess, and we have, as we know, appropriation bills that have eaten up our schedule. And because certain members of the house believe that there should be a recorded vote on every amendment that ordinarily would be voice voted, these appropriation matters have taken a very long period of time. So if we have a window to move this bill and we believe have that short window next week, we need to take it. So with that i would ask, are there any further amendments . Any member seeking recognition for an amendment . Mr. Davis madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. Ms. Lofgren the gentleman is recognized. The staff will distribute the amendment and report. I reserve a point of order. Ms. Lofgren point of order is reserved. The clerk amendment offered by mr. Rodney davis. Short title, this act may be cited as the Election Security assistance act. Section 2, grants to states for Election Administration improvements. A, authorization of funds notwithstanding section 104 mr. Davis madam chair, im ok with waiving the reading. Ms. Lofgren without objection, the reading of the amendment is waived. The gentleman is recognized for five minutes in support of his amendment. Mr. Davis thank you, madam chair. This is the bill that was introduced by colleagues and me that would, i believe, address many of the Election Security concerns that we as americans should have in a bipartisan way in this country. This is a bill that preserves the system that we have, which is a decentralized election system which allows for less opportunity for nefarious actors and foreign entities to be able to do nefarious things. You know, lets be clear. If this markup and this bill is about foreign interference only, were also missing the point about making sure our Election Officials have the resources that they need and also the flexibility they need to continue to do what they do best at our local level. I can tell you, mike genesse is a county clerk in my town in illinois. Mike and i have known each other since grade school. Went to junior high and high school together. Hes in the other party. I know mike genesse will run the most Fair Election as possible. He wants every vote to be counted. We got a lot of mike genesses in every Congressional District in this country, but what this bill what this original piece of legislation does is take away mikes right to be ble to, until one, afford to upgrade the election software, the election equipment, and it forces and mandates a certain type of investment that they may have already planned to invest in another type in the future that does nothing to address the concerns that we all have as americans to keep our election safe and secure. Thats why our bill is a better bill. It doesnt have this onesizefitsall approach. Its the approach we were working in a bipartisan way with the staff of this committee and our staff sitting down, talking about how we can come up with a bipartisan solution, a bipartisan bill, something we havent seen a lot under this new democratic majority in this congress. Frankly, outside of the usmca, which i dont even know if that will be bipartisan i dont know what bipartisan success any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be able to tout. If there is anything that should be bipartisan it should be Election Security. But instead, instead, again, the far left fringe of the Democratic Party has decided to lead this committee and then also this congress into a piece of legislation thats a lot more about show than helping people like mike and christian county, illinois. Thats unfortunate. But here we go again. Seems like h. R. 1 to me. If we want to do something together, this our bill you, the Election Security assistance act, will do that. It provides assistance to states to update their aging and atrisk equipment. Thats what democrat and republican officials in my district told me they need the most. Our bill does that. It keeps the decentralization. If we are worried about nefarious actors, the last thing we want as a congress is the federal government being the clearinghouse for elections and registration and vote counting. Thats terrible. The reason we have the safest elections and the most Fair Election system in the world, where we dont have a lot of outside foreign observers coming in wondering whether or not its going to be a fair count, most cases around here, clearly there are instances a la North Carolina, recently, where you have bad actors that will likely go to jail for using the same process that is legal in another states. We have an amendment later to outlaw that. I hope our colleagues can join us there. Lets stop playing games. We were sitting down talking about how to solve this problem in a bipartisan way and, again, the democratic majority did not live up to the promise that they made to the American People that they wanted to work with us. Thats unfortunate. I certainly hope it changes, and i certainly hope im not optimistic. I certainly hope my colleagues the other side of this dais help support this amendment but i bet you i know what the count is. I have 22 seconds. Ill reserve that time later. Ill yield it back now. Ms. Lofgren thank you, mr. Davis. Withdraw the point of order. Ms. Lofgren the amendment is jermaine. I appreciate the gentleman is offering the amendment is germane. I appreciate the gentleman is offering a proposal that recognizes the Important Role that the federal government has Election Security, although with a different approach. I do need to oppose this amendment. I fully appreciate there are elements of his proposal that could be a step forward from the status quo. However, voter verified paper ballots are the solution that really address the risks and threats that our nation faces. Unlike the gentlemans amendment, voter verified paper ballots are what the safe act provides in section 103, page 3, line 624. And it is a solution that nonpartisan, cyberSecurity Experts have repeatedly urged congress to adopt. Voter verified paper ballots are the best way to ensure a voters ballot is counted and cast. Voters should be able to see their vote clearly and verify the vote they intended to cast is the one recorded, boosting voter confidence in cases where a recount is necessary. The safe act also requires risk limiting audits which are costeffective and go hand in hand with paper. These risklimiting audit requirements are section 303ab, page 41, line 9. Paper and risklimiting audits are really the Gold Standard of Election Security and will address the National Emergency our nation faces. Thats why i think we ought to maintain our commitment to that proposal. Moreover, unlike the gentlemans amendment, the safe act section 201b on page 53, starting at line 3, expressly prohibits wireless and Internet Connectivity in systems or devices upon which ballots are marked by voters or upon which votes are cast, tabulated or aggregated. This is an important and basic cybersecurity standard we ought to require. Nobody thinks that connecting voter systems to the internet is a good idea. Sometimes low tech is the best offense to a hightech threat. So i would urge a no vote on this amendment. Does any member wish to be recognized for the purpose of offering an amendment to mr. Davis amendment . Madam chair, id like to speak. Ms. Lofgren the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. I believe what representative davis is offering is a good amendment but i will yield back some time to him to articulate further why. Mr. Davis thank you. Sorry, madam speaker. I know my colleagues thought im done but im back for a few more minutes. [laughter] mr. Davis thank you.