Friday, October 25, 2019

Billy Long says Democrats unwilling to work with Republicans to stop Russian interference in elections

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

Russia interfered with the 2016 election by deploying social media ad campaigns and troll farms in order to sway the American public.

In an effort to prevent future foreign influence, Congress must act to update our election laws and deter foreign interference in a way that does not restrict free speech for Americans. 

When Democrats introduced the Stop Harmful Interferences in Elections for a Lasting Democracy Act (SHIELD), it was found to contain holes and poison pills that rendered it ineffective in its effort to prevent foreign influence along with being full of partisan language that would never pass the United States Senate.

One of the primary sources for Russian interference in our 2016 election was the use of social media posts intended to influence the American public, yet the SHIELD Act does nothing to prevent these posts or troll farms. 

Russian operatives broke many existing laws in their attempt to spread false information, yet this legislation offers no additional resources to law enforcement to pursue foreign actors. 

Without an effective means to prevent future foreign interference through social media or prosecute the foreign agents responsible, this legislation will do nothing to protect our elections.

Republicans share many of the same concerns the Democrats do about foreign interference in our elections, and yet Democrats appeared unwilling to work in a bipartisan manner, leaving Republicans with little choice but to draft separate legislation, the Honest Elections Act. 










This bill brings existing laws into the 21st Century and strengthens the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires foreign agents to register with the Justice Department and file regular detailed reports with the agency, as well as post notices that their information is foreign-sponsored. The Honest Elections Act also makes it easier to prosecute foreign actors by extending FARA’s territorial reach beyond the U.S. It also broadens FARA’s coverage of “political activities” to including election-influencing activities, a provision that would target Russia and other countries for directing their unpaid social media posts towards influencing U.S. elections.

The Honest Act recognizes the need for Congress to pass legislation updating disclosure and disclaimer requirements for online advertisement without restricting free speech or implementing unworkable standards. It also dedicates more resources to monitoring foreign national spending in elections to protect the integrity of the process and bans dangerous practices like absentee and mail-in “ballot harvesting”, which the SHIELD Act ignores entirely.

While both parties agree that the integrity of our elections must be preserved, Republicans have crafted legislation that will do far more to combat foreign interference on multiple levels. With the 2020 election in sight, we must take swift action and punish foreign actors who attempt to undermine our elections without infringing upon states’ rights or free speech. Americans are the only ones who have the right to determine who our elected officials are, and the Honest Elections Act is our best way of ensuring their right to do so.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:28 PM

    Gosh Mr Billy!

    Have you thought to ask your president what kind of things he thinks need to be in this legislation your whining about?

    I suppose unless he likes the bill he'll veto it quicker than you can get to Las Vegas!

    So either you are just saying stuff to get votes and free news coverage in SWMO, or you haven't figured out what this president of yours does and doesn't care about.

    Either way you will probably get plenty of votes next election to stay all fed up in Washington DC and Las Vegas.


    Like daddy used to say...

    "Some people are eaten up with the dumb...They ain't got the brains god gave a dead goose."

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  2. Anonymous4:30 AM

    It is amazing how history is so quickly sometimes forgotten. Lincoln was republican and basically worked for civil rights. Then there was the Democrat Wilson that tried to keep us out of WW I, but finally relented to save the European nations. Then the republicans caused the Great Depression of the 20's-30's only to have the country baled out by Democrat Roosevelt. Roosevelt was able to push, literally shove, legislation through that gave us Rural Electric to bring the "hillybilly" out of the dark ages. Then the republicans under Eisenhower got us involved into Vietnam after Truman had made the horrible decision to use atomic weapons to save millions. Now, I admit that Johnson got us mired into VN and that was sad. Then Reagan took over and got us into a spiral of increased health care cost and "space races" that ballooned the national debt. Clinton worked bi-partisan Congress to get us into positive mode with respect to debt. Then the republicans got us into the Gulf War syndrome that is still on-going and let us not forget the great Depression of 07-08. But for some reason the clowns who still support the republicans in Missouri fail to look at accomplishments and debacles of history and make informed decisions versus voting the way dad, grandpa and great grandpa told us to vote. So much for reading and studying what should be or is taught in school. Just keep chewing on them books as paper pulp is good for you.

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  3. Anonymous9:46 AM



    Meantime will Billy Long get all worked up (or acts like it) in Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr's house the Republicans are busy spreading banana peels on the floor:

    Senate GOP blocks three election security bills for second day

    Senate Republicans blocked three election security bills on Wednesday, marking the second time in as many days they've stymied legislation.

    Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked for unanimous consent to pass three election-related bills.

    But they were blocked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who noted that the unsuccessful attempt was the latest by Democrats to pass election security bills in the Senate ahead of 2020.

    “You know, it’s not a good sign if you’re doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," Blackburn said. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/467130-senate-gop-blocks-three-election-security-bills-for-second-day


    Well there must be something the Republicans don't like in the bills...they aren't just shutting things down because they intend to make Obama a one term president...


    Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tried to pass legislation that would require campaign officials to report contacts with foreign nationals who are trying to make donations or coordinate with the campaign to the Federal Election Commission, which would notify the FBI.

    “The alarm bells are going off and what are we doing? We’re running out of time to do something about it," Warner said from the Senate floor.

    Warner added that if a foreign government offers to interfere to help a campaign "the appropriate response is not to say thank you. The appropriate response is to call the FBI." https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/467130-senate-gop-blocks-three-election-security-bills-for-second-day


    Oh.

    No wonder they don't like that.

    Their Dear Leader Donald Trump would veto it probably.

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  4. Anonymous7:34 PM

    Blind. Posters here are blind hypocrites.

    ReplyDelete