July 18, 2018
Foreign cyberattacks are becoming an increasingly dangerous threat, both to our government as well as to the private sector. As we saw firsthand during the 2016 election season, Vladimir Putin and his Russian cohorts are doing everything they can to interfere with Western democratic nations, to undermine our political systems as much as possible in order to cause chaos in every way imaginable. And that is something that should worry every American -- Republican, Democrat or independent.
There are real concerns that Russia and other bad actors around the globe might try to interfere with this year’s elections, as they did in 2016. And so we need to be vigilant to make sure that any efforts to interfere with our elections at all are thwarted.
Congress has provided states with $380 million dollars to take the necessary steps to ensure that the proper cybersecurity defenses are in place to prevent any efforts to hack state and local elections. That’s the most money provided to safeguard election equipment in 16 years, when we provided money to help upgrade and modernize voting systems in 2002. We have also appropriated another $300 million to the FBI to help combat Russian cyberattacks.
At the same time, we also need to help private businesses and the American people fend off cyberattacks. On the House Small Business Committee, I have focused on steps small businesses can take to prevent and combat cyberattacks. We have held numerous hearings on cybersecurity, and Ranking Member Nydia Velasquez and I introduced bipartisan legislation (H.R. 4668, the Small Business Advanced Cybersecurity Enhancements Act) to help give small businesses the tools and resources they need to defend themselves against cyberattacks, both foreign and domestic.
