36 Organizations Send Letter Today Urging House Members to Vote for SHIELD Act to Strengthen U.S. Election Security

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36 Organizations Send Letter Today Urging House Members to Vote for SHIELD Act to Strengthen U.S. Election Security

Organizations urge members to vote for the SHIELD Act to protect U.S. elections from foreign intervention

In a letter sent to Representatives today, 36 organizations urged all House Members to support H.R. 4617, the SHIELD Act, introduced by House Administration Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) to “strengthen the laws to protect U.S. elections against foreign intervention.” The organizations also strongly urged Members to vote against “any amendments to weaken or undermine the legislation.”

The SHIELD Act was reported out of the House Administration Committee on October 21, 2019 and is expected to reach the House floor as early as later this month.

According to the letter, the SHIELD Act contains:

  • A new requirement for candidates and political committees to notify the FBI and the FEC any time a foreign power contacts them to provide campaign assistance;
  • The Honest Ads Act to ensure greater transparency for online political ads and their sponsors;
  • Provisions to close major loopholes in the prohibition on spending by foreign governments for political ads to influence U.S. elections;
  • A new prohibition banning spending by foreign nationals on state or local ballot initiatives and referenda;
  • A new prohibition on anyone providing false information about voting rules and qualifications for voting, and new strong penalties for voter intimidation; and
  • A prohibition codifying FEC rules that prevent foreign nationals from directing, controlling or participating in the decision-making process of any person about that person’s election-related activities.

The letter noted that these provisions address “serious problems that arose in the 2016 presidential election in order to prevent them from recurring in future elections.”

The letter noted:

In his testimony before Congress on July 24, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller discussed ongoing Russian interference in our elections, stating, “They’re doing it as we sit here, and they expect to do it in the next campaign.”  According to a New York Times article published on October 4, 2019, “The 2020 presidential election is still 13 months away, but already Iranians are following in the footsteps of Russia and have begun cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the campaigns.”

A bipartisan report issued on October 8, 2019 by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed the Mueller report in finding that Russia had targeted the 2016 presidential election as “part of a broader, sophisticated and ongoing information warfare campaign.”

The letter to Representatives concluded:

Our organizations strongly urge you to vote for the SHIELD Act and to vote against any amendments to weaken or undermine the legislation.

The 36 organizations signing the letter include:

Action Group Network

American Oversight

Campaign Legal Center

Center for Digital Democracy

Center for Popular Democracy

Clean Elections Texas

Coalition to Preserve, Protect and Defend

Common Cause

Common Defense

Concerned Citizens for Change

CREW

Defending Democracy

Democracy 21

Democracy Initiative

End Citizens United Action Fund

Equal Justice Society

Franciscan Action Network

Greenpeace USA

Indivisible

Indivisible KC

Law Works

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

League of Women Voters

Mainers for Accountable Leadership

MoveOn

NETWORK

New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics

People For the American Way

Progressive Turnout Project

Protect Democracy

Public Citizen

Sierra Club

Stand Up America

The Loyal Opposition

Voices for Progress

Win Without War

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