WASHINGTON - The Committee on House Administration held a Full Committee Hearing today titled, “American Confidence in Elections: Prohibiting Foreign Interference.”

Witnesses: 

  • Matthew O'Neill, former Managing Director for Secret Service's Global Cyber Investigative Operations

  • Caitlin Sutherland, Executive Director of Americans for Public Trust

  • Bradley Bowman, Senior Director for the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

  • Derf Johnson, Deputy Director for the Montana Environmental Information Center

In case you missed it, here are the top takeaways:

1. Discussing loopholes that allow foreign nationals to contribute to political campaigns

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): Does anyone have an argument that we should not ban foreign funds from coming into ballot initiatives. Any of our witnesses? Let the record reflect all of them agree that we should work to ban this. We have legislation to ban this at the federal level, and we continue to get caught up in the gobbledygook. But when you look at the impact that these foreign funds are having directly in U.S. elections, I think most Americans would be shocked. Because we know on the books a foreign national is not allowed to directly contribute into a U.S. candidate. Is that accurate, Ms. Sutherland?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: That's correct.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): But all they have to do is simply use the workaround and implement their funds and channel it through a loophole that allows those funds to come in and directly impact U.S. elections, correct?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: Correct.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): So as we look at the impact that this has in our elections, how much money have you identified just one foreign individual spending in the past handful of years?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: So Hansjörg Wyss who's a Swiss billionaire and not a U.S. citizen, has contributed around a quarter of a billion dollars into the Sixteen Thirty Fund and then the Sixteen Thirty Fund turns around and spends it on a whole host of activities.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): I think when the American people realize that this vulnerability exists in our U.S. election system and, as Mr. Bowman pointed out, not only may there be rich billionaires across the globe, but there could be state actors that could engage in this. We could completely envision this same technique being utilized by a Chinese national or North Korean national, a Russian national who has a direct interest on U.S. policy. We go back and we look at the array of groups that were interested in killing the Keystone XL pipeline, and we have seen Russian action as it relates to energy production across the globe. Is that, is that accurate, Ms. Sutherland?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: Yes.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): Now, we could look at a whole host of reasons. I think it is imperative of this committee as we move forward to not only continue to work on the enforcement of our current law, including making sure that there's proper security procedures in place in ActBlue, that online giving platforms are blocking foreign funds from coming in, but I think one of the real missed pieces of this is the proven millions of dollars that are coming in from foreign nationals directly impacting U.S. campaigns. We have an opportunity to close it. We have legislation to close it. I think it's imperative that we actually pass this and it becomes law. 

Click the image or here to view Chairman Steil's Q&A.

2. How have foreign adversaries tried to influence our elections?

Rep. Stephanie Bice (OK-05): Mr. Bowman, if I can pivot to you, what are the most concerning tactics that our foreign adversaries are using to influence U.S. elections?

Mr. Bradley Bowman: Thank you, Congresswoman, for the question. Russia's most significant operations in this election cycle involved a series of hoax videos published in the weeks before the election, several of which went viral. Fortunately, I would say, the U.S. government promptly responded in many cases as some of my colleagues noted. In one instance, a fake video depicting someone burning ballots in Pennsylvania was debunked by local election officials on the same day the video was posted, and the federal government released an official statement two days later attributing it to Russia. Iran's most significant activity involved, as was mentioned, the hack and leak operation targeting the Trump campaign. While Iran successfully compromised sensitive materials from the Trump campaign, mainstream media outlets did not publish this information. Iran also targeted swing states and minority groups through a series of fake websites, but those do not appear to have gained significant traction for the most part. Finally, China, as we mentioned already earlier, focused on its flagship influence operations with Spamouflage. So, if I may, the main point here, I think, is that we're all under attack, right? So we should remember that because, if I may, they want us to make this a partisan fight, because then we'll be divided and distracted and weak. We're all under attack, and so it's like when your family is attacked, right? All that matters is your family is attacked. The family comes together, you work together to solve it. So this is absolutely in my view, a national security issue, and it would be a mistake to make it a partisan one.

Click the image or here to view Rep. Bice's Q&A.

3. How has Ohio combatted foreign funding in state ballot initiatives?

Rep. Mike Carey (OH-15): Ms. Sutherland, I want to touch briefly on a couple of things because we're gonna talk mining, but if you could just talk to me a little bit about how on the same day that Governor DeWine called for a special election in Ohio earlier this year, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, literally that day wired $6 million to the proponents of Issue One. Can you just talk a little bit a bit about that?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: So, as you said, on the same day that Governor DeWine called that special session to tackle two things - getting then President Biden on the ballot in Ohio and two, banning foreign money - Sixteen Thirty Fund clearly sensing that this ban on foreign money was going to pass sent $6 million into an Ohio ballot issue committee, seemingly front loading the cash before it became illegal in Ohio.

Rep. Mike Carey (OH-15): That's right. And is it true that after the Ohio legislature passed a ban on the foreign national contributions to the ballot issues in Ohio, that there was an attorney, I believe Marc Elias, who sued Ohio to block the law so that foreign nationals could still contribute to the ballot issue?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: That's absolutely correct. Marc Elias, he's been very busy this election year denying the results in the Pennsylvania Senate race, as well as defending that foreign money should be allowed to come into Ohio. Just weeks after the Ohio legislature passed that ban, he turned around and sued the state of Ohio, arguing that foreign nationals should be able to contribute to ballot issues. Fortunately, the Sixth Circuit recently upheld that decision and said that the law can go into effect. 

Click the image or here to view Rep. Carey's Q&A.

4. How can foreign adversaries influence state elections?

Rep. Laurel Lee (FL-15): As you know, in my home state of Florida this past election cycle, we had two very contentious ballot initiatives that were considered. Did you see any instances of this type of foreign interference occurring in Florida's elections this cycle?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: Thank you for your question. Yes, we actually did see it on the issue related to codifying abortion rights in Florida's state constitution. So again, we were able to trace that over $14 million in foreign backed funds came into Florida to influence your state's constitution. The fact that a foreign national can give directly or indirectly to influence a ballot issue is a loophole that needs to be closed, and I commend everyone's efforts here to close it.

Rep. Laurel Lee (FL-15): Are there any particular steps that you would recommend that state legislatures or Congress take to close those loopholes?

Ms. Caitlin Sutherland: Yes, implementing a ban like Ohio did, which can also be done on the federal level, to reject the issue that foreign nationals can give to a ballot issue campaign. I'd also like to point out that it was not the FEC that created the loophole. The FEC interprets law. Ballot issues are inherently not elections. So therefore, the prohibition on foreign nationals influencing elections does not apply. So, it's not that Republican commissioners created this loophole, it's that they interpret the law, and currently there is no law on the federal level, and in most states, that say foreign nationals can't give the ballot issue campaigns. So it's a simple common sense measure to implement, and I really look forward to tackling this issue again next Congress. 

Click the image or here to view Rep. Lee's Q&A.