Legislation & policy analysis
This week, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) joined in sponsoring the bipartisan Honest Ads Act, the best first step to protect U.S. elections from foreign interference. This brings the number of bipartisan sponsors of the bill to 31 members in the House and Senate.
“It is encouraging that bipartisan support for this commonsense bill to protect our elections continues to grow,” said Issue One’s Executive Director Meredith McGehee. “The American people need to know that there are leaders in Congress who will put country over party to stop foreign powers from disrupting our elections and fix our broken political system.”
Rep. Cummings is the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and Rep. King serves on both the Committees on Homeland Security and Financial Services in the 116th Congress.
The bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and in the House by Reps. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY). (The full list of sponsors is below.) Additionally, more than 115 former members of Congress, governors, and Cabinet secretaries from both parties are united behind the legislation and delivered a powerful letter to Congress when the bill was re-introduced in May.
The Honest Ads Act would help combat Russia and others from interfering with our elections with hidden, foreign disinformation campaigns. This legislation would implement a disclosure system for paid, online political advertising similar to the rules already in place for TV and radio.
Also this week, the Senate passed the DETER Act (S. 1328) by unanimous consent. The bill would block individuals who interfere in U.S. elections from being able to enter the United States. Sponsors on the bill include Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). It was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
The full list of sponsors on the Honest Ads Act in the House (H.R. 2592) and Senate (S. 1356) includes:
| Republicans | Democrats |
| Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) | Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) |
| Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) | |
| Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) | Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA) |
| Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) | Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD) |
| Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) | Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY) |
| Representative John Katko (R-NY) | Representative Charlie Crist (D-FL) |
| Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) | Representative Thomas Suozzi (D-NY) |
| Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) | Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) |
| Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) | Representative Bradley Schneider (D-IL) |
| Representative David B. McKinley (R-WV) | Representative Jim Costa (D-CA) |
| Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) | Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) |
| Representative Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR) | Representative Scott Peters (D-CA) |
| Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) | Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) |
| Representative Pete Stauber (R-MN) | Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR) |
| Representative Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) | Representative Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) |
| Representative Peter King (R-NY) | Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) |
Issue: Foreign Interference
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