Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., are pushing a key Senate committees to hold hearings on their legislation that’s aimed at sanctioning Russia or other countries that try to meddle in U.S. elections.
The two senators want their Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act, or the DETER Act, to be quickly considered by the Senate committees on banking and foreign relations, as fears mount that Russia may try to influence the 2018 midterm elections just as it interfered with the 2016 presidential election.
[Related: GOP eyes Russia sanctions bill a day after Trump’s summit blunder]
“Given the urgency of the challenge before our nation, we urge your respective committee to work to hold its hearing and for the Senate Banking Committee to mark up the DETER Act during this work period,” Rubio and Van Hollen wrote in the letter to the two committees. “The Senate has the opportunity to highlight to the American public the real threats that foreign interference in our future elections pose, and to act to deter future foreign interference and defend our country.”
“We are just 110 days away from our elections in November,” they added. “The time to come together and act is now.”
Their letter went to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and the top two senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
The DETER Act would impose sanctions against foreign actors who interfere in U.S. elections. It would target countries that buy advertisements to impact an election, use social and traditional media to disseminate incorrect information to voters, or released or alter election and campaign infrastructure, among other things.
In the event that the director of national intelligence discovers that Russia has meddled in a future U.S. election, sanctions must be enforced within 10 days. Sanctions would be imposed on industries including Russian finance, energy, defense, and metals and mining.
The letter comes after President Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week in Helsinki. Trump initially claimed he had no reason not to believe Putin, who stressed to him that the Russian government was not to blame for interference in the election.
He later walked back on those statements and said he misspoke and trusts a January 2017 report from the U.S. intelligence community that found Russian agents were responsible for interfering in the election.
[Opinion: The Russians, or someone else, could really hack the 2018 midterm elections]
