Rogers Opening Statement at Election Security Hearing

WASHINGTON House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) today gave an opening statement at a hearing entitled, Defending Our Democracy: Building Partnerships to Protect American s Elections.

“All Americans should have confidence that voting equipment and systems are secure, their vote counts as they intended, and that election results are accurately reported, Rogers said. As it stands, much of H.R. 1 s 570 pages appear to be a political exercise. That is why I am very disappointed that election security, an issue where we had an opportunity to work together to move bipartisan legislation, has gotten caught up in this partisan political power grab. I hope when H.R. 1 does not advance in the Senate, we can revisit the issue of election security in a bipartisan manner.

Find Rogers’ full remarks, as prepared for delivery below:

I look forward to the opportunity to hear from our witnesses today regarding election security. The integrity of our elections is foundational to our democracy.

All Americans should have confidence that voting equipment and systems are secure, their vote counts as they intended, and that election results are accurately reported.

Last week, DHS and DOJ released their findings that there was no evidence of any foreign interference in the 2018 election. I believe the tremendous work done by DHS, our intelligence community, and state and local leaders made that happen. But there is certainly more work to be done.

Much of our focus today will be on the work we still need to do to secure the technology and systems behind our elections. But we can t lose sight of a simple lesson:

Foreign intelligence services, domestic partisans, and online vandals do not care what our laws say. They are happy to use our public forums against us.

My home state saw liberal activists deliberately mislead Alabamians regarding public endorsements and political issues in the 2017 US Senate special election. They bragged to liberal donors behind closed doors about their success in manipulating Alabama voters.

H.R. 1 attempts to address these pressing issues, but the bill s provisions are deeply naÔve. As it stands, H.R. 1 is an exercise in regulating everything that moves near a ballot box.

The problems facing our election system are more complex than that. Election security has long been a bipartisan priority for Members of this committee.

It is my hope that this bipartisan tradition on this issue will continue in this Congress. We need a deliberative, bipartisan process to solve these issues.

Unfortunately, it appears our Committee will not have an opportunity to mark up the election security provisions in our jurisdiction. That is unfortunate because the election security provisions of this bill could be improved.

And I know Members on both sides of this Committee have some good ideas on how to make improvements. As it stands, much of H.R. 1 s 570 pages appear to be a political exercise.

That is why I am very disappointed that election security, an issue where we had an opportunity to work together to move bipartisan legislation, has gotten caught up in this partisan political power grab.

I hope when H.R. 1 does not advance in the Senate, we can revisit the issue of election security in a bipartisan manner.

I thank our witnesses for taking to the time to speak to our committee about the work you are doing on the frontlines of elections.

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Contact: Nicole Hager
202-226-8417