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James Lankford on Technology |
James Lankford and I were the only members of the Senate who served on both the Homeland Security and Intelligence Committees. As such, we were uniquely suited to come together in a nonpartisan way to develop legislation to combat these attacks. At the end of December 2017, we introduced the Secure Elections Act, to protect the U.S. from future foreign interference in our elections.
The legislation would establish clear expert guidelines for securing election systems--including, for example, the need for paper ballots. Russia might be able to hack a machine from afar, but it can't hack a piece of paper. And it would provide $386 million in grants for cybersecurity improvements. It would also establish what's known as a bug bounty program for election infrastructure--where hackers are paid for identifying software vulnerabilities.
Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Waxman, D-CA]: This bill will cripple National Public Radio, public radio stations, and programming that is vital to over 27 million Americans. We are now voting to deny the public access to one of our Nation's most credible sources of news coverage. This bill does not save a penny. This legislation does not serve any fiscal purpose, but it does serve an ugly ideological one. This legislation is not about reforming NPR. It is about punishing NPR. It is vindictive, it is mean-spirited, it is going to hit the smallest stations in rural areas particularly hard. Public radio is indispensable for access to news that's hard to get, especially where broadband service is limited.
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has jurisdiction over all modes of transportation: aviation, maritime and waterborne transportation, roads, bridges, mass transit, and railroads. But the Committee has jurisdiction over other aspects of our national infrastructure, such as clean water and waste management, the transport of resources by pipeline, flood damage reduction, the economic development of depressed rural and urban areas, disaster preparedness and response, activities of the Army Corps of Engineers and the various missions of the Coast Guard.
When combined, these areas of jurisdiction provide a comprehensive view of how communities across the United States are connected to one another, how infrastructure affects the growth and flow of commerce at home and abroad, and how an effective government can improve the lives of its citizens.
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
|---|---|---|
| Aviation | Tom Petri (R-WI) | Jerry Costello (D-IL) |
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
| Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation | Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) | Rick Larsen (D-WA) |
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
| Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management | Jeff Denham (R-CA) | Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) |
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
| Highways and Transit | Jimmy Duncan (R-TN) | Peter DeFazio (D-OR) |
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
| Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials | Bill Shuster (R-PA) | Corrine Brown (D-FL) |
| Subcommittee | Chair | Ranking Member |
| Water Resources and Environment | Bob Gibbs (R-OH) | Tim Bishop (D-NY) |