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Congressional Record—Senate S5627

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Congressional Record—Senate S5627 September 16, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S5627 their ability to pay their bills and to week—merely a month before election ceiving information from the par- receive medications, and that small day. There is a dark similarity here to ticular Russian agent that I have men- businesses are not able to complete the Republican effort in the House in tioned, Mr. Derkach, but Chairman their transactions. Congress has a re- the previous election to discredit the JOHNSON has never provided a full ac- sponsibility to enact legislation that Democratic Presidential candidate counting of all the Russian- and will restore timely delivery and fully with the Select Committee on Ukrainian-linked individuals he sought fund the Postal Service. Benghazi. information from. One of the chair- Finally, we need to ensure that the You may remember the now-minor- man’s subpoenas, for example, targeted Census Bureau has the time necessary ity leader of the House Republican cau- a Ukrainian national who is an asso- to execute a complete and accurate cus bragging that the Republicans cre- ciate of Mr. Derkach. 2020 count. You know, it has been in- ated the committee to bring down Hil- So anticipating his objection to this teresting to me to see the efforts of lary’s poll numbers. You know what resolution, I would simply ask the this administration to try and politi- they say about a political gaffe: It is chairman to provide a full accounting cize the census, because this is no red when politicians tell the truth. of whom he sought information from, State or blue State problem. The Well, it seems like the Republican so we can know who they are, what States with the lowest percentage of chairman of the Homeland Security their motives are, and, therefore, the households that have been counted dur- and Governmental Affairs Committee Senate can see if they are trying to ing the census are Alabama, Montana, has made the same gaffe that Minority interfere with our elections. Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Leader MCCARTHY made in 2016. In a The chairman should have no issue South Carolina. They are mostly in the little-noticed interview with a Wis- furthering a complete accounting of his South, but not all. We must give the consin radio station last month, Sen- contacts with Russian and Ukrainian Census Bureau time to make a com- ator JOHNSON said that his probe would sources. The American people ought to plete and accurate count by including a ‘‘help Donald Trump win reelection,’’ know whether the U.S. Senate has been statutory delay for the apportionment and yet somehow the current activities sullied by potentially receiving infor- and redistricting count that is part of of the Republican majority in the mation from discredited Russian any package before we go home. This is Homeland Security committee are agents. The American people should ex- something that the Census Bureau even worse than what the House Re- pect the Senate to pass this resolution asked us for last spring, and it is some- publicans did in 2016, because in the today. What were our Founding Fathers thing that we should make sure they rush to find scraps of information for most worried about? One of the top receive, even though under political these investigations, Senate Repub- things—top things—was interference pressure they changed their request. licans may have collected and propa- Bipartisanship on these priorities is gated disinformation that came from by foreign powers in our elections. Back then, their concerns were about possible. We were able to negotiate the Putin’s intelligence agents. Some of the allegations that the bribery or treason or a foreign actor CARES Act legislation that passed the Homeland Security chairman is now who infiltrated our government. Senate by a vote of 96 to 0. We did it pursuing are the same ones pushed by Today, in our information age, the before. We can do this again because Andriy Derkach, a known Russian methods of foreign interference are dif- that is how government is supposed to agent who was sanctioned by President ferent, but the risks are the same. work. We are supposed to come to- Trump’s own Treasury Department for Our chief adversaries—Russia, China, gether and negotiate and deliver for interfering in our elections. Iran, North Korea—have found that the American people. Powerful Senate Republicans are disinformation and misinformation are Probably the most often heard re- echoing the same claims that the Rus- a weak point in open societies like mark that I hear in New Hampshire is sians are pushing, the same nonsense ours. That makes it incumbent on us— this: Why can’t you just all work to- that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 all of us—here in the Congress to be gether to address the needs of this elections and not just Putin. careful about the information we re- country? We have all become so inured to ceive and repeat. That is what we should be doing scandal during this scandalous admin- In the zeal for partisan advantage, we around everything, and it is what we istration, but the fact that a powerful hope the Republican majority on the should be doing around responding to Senate committee may have fallen vic- Homeland Security Committee has not this coronavirus. tim to misinformation from Moscow is become a sympathetic audience and a We should not recess until we can get appalling. potential entrance point to foreign in- a bill to the President’s desk. We were The PRESIDING OFFICER. Would fluence campaigns, wittingly or unwit- sent here to do a job. We have an obli- the Democratic leader yield? tingly. What a disastrous and disgrace- gation to get it done. The foot dragging Mr. SCHUMER. I will yield. ful state of affairs. The Senate should has gone on for far too long. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pass this resolution today. Brinksmanship should end because chair will remind Senators that Rule I yield the floor to my colleague from time is running out on the needs of the XIX provides that ‘‘No Senator in de- Oregon. American people. bate shall, directly or indirectly, by The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- I yield the floor. any form of words impute to another ator from Oregon. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator or to other Senators any con- Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise in Democratic leader. duct or motive unworthy or unbecom- support of this resolution offered by UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST ing a Senator.’’ the Democratic leader. We are calling Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, this Mr. SCHUMER. I am aware of it. Ev- for an end to a horribly flawed congres- morning the Republican majority of erything I have stated here is factual— sional investigation. The foreign the Homeland Security and Govern- everything, every single thing. threats to our democracy—attempts to mental Affairs Committee authorized So, this afternoon, my colleagues and poison it with disinformation and to another smattering of subpoenas in I have drafted a simple resolution that sow distrust—are an established mat- what seems to be an ongoing effort to calls for the cessation of any Senate in- ter of fact. disparage a former Vice President and vestigation or activity that allows the It is especially troubling because for his family. U.S. Congress to act as a conduit for periods over the last year, two Senate While the rest of the country is busy Russian disinformation. committees have conducted an inves- fighting COVID–19, this is what the I cannot fathom how any Member of tigation involving Ukraine, former Homeland Security Committee has this Chamber could justify blocking Vice President Biden, and his son Hun- been up to—using the powers of the such a resolution. There must not be a ter: the Homeland Security and Gov- Senate to, in effect, conduct opposition single aspect of this Chamber that ernmental Affairs Committee, led by research for President Trump’s cam- wittingly or unwittingly furthers the our colleague from Wisconsin, Chair- paign. propaganda machine of Vladimir Putin. man JOHNSON; and our colleague from The Republican chairman has said he Now, I know what my friend from Iowa, Chairman GRASSLEY, of the Fi- plans to release a report about it next Wisconsin might say. He will deny re- nance Committee, in which I am the VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:24 Sep 17, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G16SE6.023 S16SEPT1 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE S5628 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE September 16, 2020 ranking Democrat. My staff has joined RICHARD BURR, [then, of course] chair- tainly be pretty good, I would say, evi- in interviews and received documents man of the Intel Committee, and they dence about not voting for Vice Presi- pertinent to the investigation. told me take very cautiously anything dent Biden.’’ Given my Finance Committee role coming out of the Ukraine against any- He said in September: ‘‘Stay tuned. and my position on the Senate Intel- body.’’ In about a week we’re going to learn a ligence Committee, I am unable to dis- The disinformation that these two whole lot more of Vice President cuss classified information or details of have spread—Derkach and Telizhenko Biden’s unfitness for office.’’ an ongoing inquiry. However, I can dis- have spread—the disinformation these cuss public information about the two have spread, largely a collection of Furthermore, the chairman, in my spread of Russian propaganda and the unproven allegations and wild con- view, looking again at the public pathway it is following from Russian spiracy theories, has obviously made it record, cannot credibly take issue with agents, through the U.S.
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