WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 06: The early morning sun strikes the U.S. Capitol November 6, 2006 in Washington, DC. Midterm elections take place November 7, potentially changing the balance of power in the nation's capital. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The House Monday failed to pass under expedited procedures legislation to require the Trump Administration to produce a public report on foreign threats to federal elections, as well as two other reports related to Russian meddling in U.S. and Western elections.
The language is contained in intelligence authorization legislation for fiscal 2018, a 56-page bill reported out of the House Intelligence Committee July 13.
The House took the bill up Monday under the faster suspension of the rules procedure, but failed to reach the necessary two-thirds majority to pass legislation using that procedure.
Backers are expected to move quickly to bring the bill back to the floor.
The legislation would direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, along with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, to issue a public online report on foreign counterintelligence and cybersecurity threats to federal election campaigns, starting next year.
The report is to contain a description of the threats, a summary of actions political campaigns could take in response, and identification of publicly available resources to use against such threats.
It is to be released within 60 days of the bill’s enactment, ahead of next year’s congressional elections. For subsequent federal elections, the reports are due out a year before voter’s go to the polls.
The bill would also require the DNI, within 60 days, to submit to congressional intelligence committees a report assessing Russia’s “financing of threat activity.” That includes financing of cyber operations, global influence campaigns, intelligence service activities, proliferation, terrorism, or transnational crime and drug organizations. It also covers methods and entities to raise and handle money for those constituting a threat; sanctions evasion; or “other forms of threat financing domestically or internationally, as defined by the President.”
This report, which, according to the legislation “may be submitted in classified form,” is to include a summary of “leading examples” from the preceding three-year period of such threat finance activities by, for the benefit of, or at the behest of Russian officials, anyone subject to Russia sanctions, or Russians subject to sanctions under other provisions of law. It is also to include an assessment of trends or patterns in threat finance activities related to Russia, a summary of coordination with foreign partners on threat finance related to Russia—“especially in Europe,” and identification of “resource and collection gaps.”
Finally, the bill would require the DNI to submit a report to congressional intelligence committees within 60 days on Russian influence campaigns aimed at elections in countries other than the United States.
This report would summarize the influence campaigns and defenses or responses` by the target country, and assess the effectiveness of these steps.
The report could be classified but, if so, would be required to contain an unclassified summary.
House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had called on Democrats to oppose it.
In a letter asking her Democratic colleagues to vote against the bill, Pelosi wrote that the bill itself is “not problematic,” but taking it up under suspension is, noting that House Democrats have expressed interest in offering amendments to the bill.
She said putting the bill on the suspension calendar “would deprive Democrats of the ability to have a full and open debate on critical intelligence issues at this sensitive time in our nation’s history.”
The Senate version of the bill is still being worked on.
Steve Hirsch is senior national security editor at The Cipher Brief.
