System is as secure as its ever before. The Registration System as secure as its ever before. Four years ago the obama administration, a little later than this, said there is a big problem and were going to declare the election structure a structure of National Significance and were going 0 it play a different role than we ever played before. No anticipation this was going to happen. Not much discussion. Election officials all over the country immediately said, oh, no youre not. Youre not going to just decide in october of Election Year that youre going to take over the election system and declare it a national a system of National Significance, a system of critical significance to the future of the nation. Of course it is. But it didnt become that in october of 2016. But the message was clear that we needed to build those stronger ties with local and state election authorities. We needed to do everything we could as we saw the efforts by some foreign actors and some people in their basement to try to see if they could get into the voter Registration System and do something with it. And we have done more of that than well, weve done all that we can think of, in my view. We did a the love it before 2018 we did a lot of it before 2018, and that never stopped. So for 20 years, congress has done all we could think of to help make the system work better. Weve spent over 1 billion in the past four years. Weve encouraged that we update and have seen updated antiquated systems, systems that didnt have a ballot trail and other things; have generally all been replaced. Where they havent been, i think theyre on even higher alert. Weve helped them increase their cybersecurity. Weve responded to covid19 with help to local governments that in some cases was used for establishing polling places and even maybe playing paying extra to election judges than we had done before. But while we provided those resources, it has been for a long time and still is up local and state officials who are the closest to the people they work for to do everything they can to secure those elections. I spent about 20 years doing that, part of it as a local election official, a county official, in missouri, and part of it as the missouri secretary of state, the chief election official. Earlier this month i had chance to be in kansas city when the county clerks and election authorities were all meeting, most of them there at a distanced meeting to talk about the election responsibility. Others were virtually there to talk, again, about the absolute commitment that they have made to the people they work for to conduct elections in a way that they are both free and fair, and i think thats whats going to happen. Now, clearly, again the efforts by foreign adversaries, russia, korea, iran, others to interfere with our elections. But we want to be sure and i believe have been sure that federal agencies have been providing the resources they needed to investigate bad actors, to punish bad actors, to do everything they could to protect the American Election system. Were in a much different place than we were four years ago. Election authorities state and in many cases local know the name of the person at Homeland Security that they have had now a fouryear relationship with, or a twoyear relationship with or a oneyear relationship with. When they get a call the day before the election, theyre going to know that thats a call from somebody who not only is there to help them that day but has been there to help them up until now. The rules committee has held four hearings since the 2018 election, one on Election Security, one on how were preparing for the 2020 election and one on oversight of the u. S. Election assistance commission. In addition to that, putting people on the federal Elections Commission to fill vacancies that have been there for a long time. The Judiciary Committee has looked into things like the social Media Companies that are trying to drop disinformation. Homeland security has drawn out a road map and put the kinds of protections in the system that youd want to have in the system for the equipment that counts votes, the Registration System thats available on election day, the intelligence committee, as i said before, conducted a three and a half year investigation on foreign meddling in the last election. And the administration is holding those perpetrators accountable. The Justice Department has secured indictments against three russian companies. 26 people involved with Russian Influence Campaign in 2016 have been impacted by that. The Justice Department has sanctioned 46 other people and 18 businesses. You know, one of the things that we didnt have in 2016 was a cyber offense. We had a cyber defense, and i think the best in the world at that moment i hope it still is but we didnt have a cyber offense. I remember being in an intel hearing in 2017 when the question since early 2017, the question put to our intel community, have you ever been told by the president of the United States that you should go that you should have offensive action taken against these bad actors . And the answer by all of them was no. But it was march or april of 2017. The president of the United States hadnt given that direction for the previous years was not the current president , who not too long after that did give that direction. And by 2018, when we saw cyber offense, we had our own cyber offense, and they know they are and they know the price they paid and the price they would pay again. Thousands of members of the Intelligence Community have been working to keep an eye on that part of keeping our elections secure. Providing federal support to state and local officials is the right approach. Frankly, i was been in favor of providing a little more yet this year, but that appears to be part of a bill that we just cant seem to agree to, even though somewhere between the targeted senate bill and the problem solvers house bipartisan bill in the in the house that was released a week or so ago, there is clearly a settlement there that would likely allow a little more Election Security assistance. But the were getting pretty late to add much to the system. We need to now be sure that whats in the system really works. We dont need a federal takeoverment. Takeover. Many of you have heard me say before that late in 2016 president obama said, quote, there is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig American Elections, in part because they are so decentralized in the number of votes involved. Now, i think thats right that ends his quote, by the way. I think hes exactly right. The diversity of the system is the strength of the system. I personally think the best place to vote is sat a polling place on election day. I dont always get to vote that way. But if you want to have all the information that happens between the start of the campaign and the day you vote, the only way you get that is voting on election day. If you want to see your ballot go into a ballot box or into the counting system and know that happened, you best get that at election day. But many people will vote in other ways, particularly this year. Usually the other ways are a little more complicated, but theyre still protected by comparison signatures in most states. Theyre still usually going to include an indication on the voter roll that goes to the polling place that somebody has already received another ballot. There are safeguards there, and forbe reasons we all understand, more people and for reasons we all understand, more people are going to vote early in this election than ever before. I know our Election Officials in our state and i suspect all over the country are planning on what they can do to still have the most Information Available possible on information night. But its unlikely were going to know everything we want to know election night. If you dont want to vote at a polling place on election day or cant vote at a polling place on election day, you should still vote. Confidence in everything you hear or read should not be complete, but i think confidence that the election system itself is going to tabulate the results that came in and the votes that were cast is a pretty safe bet. Republicans can politics can become heated and noisy during an election system, but at the end of the day, the American People need to understand that were going all we can to give them the ability to cast their ballots with minimal obstacles and maximum confidence that what happens on election day is what the voters voted to do on election day. And with that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , may i ask consent to speak as if in morning business for up to 20 minutes. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Whitehouse thank you, mr. President this is a time to wake up good news, bad news speech. The good news from last week is on Business Community support for Carbon Pricing. What is Carbon Pricing . Well, remember that i. M. F. , the International Monetary fund, pegs the International Fossil fuel fuel fund in the United States at 600 billion per year. The Energy Market is dramatically tilted to favor fossil fuels. Carbon pricing helps set that right. Helps make an even playing field, which economics 101 and Carbon Pricing makes a lot of accepts. So what happened last week . The Business Roundtable made up of all of these giant american corporations and more these are the top 50 that i could fit on this screen on this chart, but there are 200 of them. They came out in support of Carbon Pricing. Their report warned that the consequences of Climate Change for global prosperity and socioeconomic wellbeing are significant. The world simply cannot afford the costs of inaction. The Business Roundtable report went on to urge companies to align policy goals and Greenhouse Gas emissions reduction with scientific evidence. Listen to the scientists. We could do more of that. And, the b. R. T. Said a key component of Climate Policy should be the price on carbon. Heres what they said. A price on carbon would provide an effective incentive to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and mitigate Climate Change, including through the development and deployment of breakthrough technologies. Establishing im still quoting here, establishing a clear price signal is the most important the most important consideration for encouraging innovation, driving efficiencicy and ensuring sustained environmental and economic effectiveness, end quote. So this is big news. These are Big Companies. And this is good news. These companies of the Business Roundtable employ more than 15 Million People. They have more than 7. 5 trillion in revenues. Their unified voice is a good thing and a big deal. So, with all of that good news from all of these big american corporations, whats the bad news . The bad news is that Corporate America often shows one face to the world and a very different face to congress. And the face they show to congress is not at all aligned with this policy they Just Announced to the world. This discrepancy, this misalinement is a persistent problem, and it needs to be fixed. The problem has three dimensions. One, even those companies dont pay much attention to Climate Change in their lobbying and election activities. For most, its zero attention. And, by the way, that silence is deafening around here. And that silence by these companies is compounded by the trade associations through which they consolidate their lobbying work. Most trade associations do nothing on climate. Heres coke and pepsis trade association. By the way, heres pepsi and coke on the list of companies that joined the Business Roundtable proclimate, procarbon price statement. But when they lobby, heres the American Beverage Association, the trade association. And as you can see, they havent been spending much money lately and they havent bnl been spending on climate. In 2009 and in 2010, they spent a lot of money. Why . Because we were starting to work on obamacare and there was an idea that the companies that sold sugary beverages that created Health Issues should help pay the cost of the Health Issues that their sweetened beverages created. So off to battle went the American Beverage Association with millions and millions of dollars in spending. This, by the way, is just the number of lobbyists. This is their spending. So if they cared about Climate Change and wanted to put a little bit of lobbying pressure on, this is what theyre capable of doing. This is what they are doing. Here is a pitch in my hands right here entitled tech net remaining legislative priorities for 2020. This is 30, sorry, 13 pages of advocacy for all the things the tech sector wants from congress through their trade Association Tech net. 13 pages, the list goes on and on. Top priorities and then page after page in small print of all the priorities, of all the things that they Want Congress to do for them. And not a single mention of Climate Change. Not a single mention of carbon price. What do you think congress will respond to . General noise made to the world or your specific asks to congress . Here is the list of Companies Whose c. E. O. s signed that Business Roundtable report and came out for action on climate and a carbon price, who are also in tech net, which the week before came here with 13 pages of legislative priorities that didnt include either Climate Change or carbon price. Youve got to line things up, you guys. And these are big players. Look at them. Honeywell, amazon, microsoft, cisco, dell, visa, g. M. , oracle, paypal, all on both sides of the issue within the same week here in congress. So those are the trade associations that do nothing on this issue. It gets worse because there are trade associations who are our worst enemies on Climate Action. And in fact influence map has done some research and tracked which groups and which corporations are the most Climate Friendly and which are the most climate hostile. And if you look all the way over right next to Marathon Petroleum in hostility is the u. S. Chamber of commerce. There was actually a tie, the u. S. Chamber of commerce and the National Association of manufacturers were statistically tied as the two worst climate obstructers in america. So theyre out here having worked hammer and tongs to stop climate legislation and prevent a carbon price, and youve got the Business Roundtable statement supporting action on Climate Change and supporting a carbon price. So here are the companies that are members of the Business Roundtable and came out last week for action on Climate Change and supported a carbon price who are also members of the chamber of commerce which relentlessly opposes all serious Climate Action, and specifically a carbon price. Look at them all. Look at them all. I dont know if the camera can pan in on that, but these are some of americas biggest corporations. And i would bet you that if this group said, hey, we just made a new decision over on the Business Roundtable wearing our Business Roundtable hat and went to the chamber and said were not going to do your opposition any longer, not going to support your opposition to Climate Action. We are actually serious about being for Climate Action and a carbon price, if all those companies actually said that to the chamber of commerce and threatened to quit if they didnt clean up their act at the chamber of commerce, that would make a very big difference. And around here that would make a very big difference because the chamber is the biggest kahuna of lobbying. Its electioneering all the time usually against democrats almost inevitably for the worst candidate on climate. And theyre over in courts and o