A bill to establish an advisory committee to make recommendations on improvements to the security, integrity, and administration of Federal elections.

II Calendar No. 2 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 13 To establish an advisory committee to make recommendations on improve- ments to the security, integrity, and administration of Federal elections. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JANUARY 6, 2021 Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. HOEVEN, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. COTTON, Mr. LANKFORD, Mrs. FISCHER, Ms. ERNST, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. YOUNG, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. MORAN, and Mr. ROUNDS) introduced the following bill; which was read the first time JANUARY 19, 2021 Read the second time and placed on the calendar A BILL To establish an advisory committee to make recommenda- tions on improvements to the security, integrity, and administration of Federal elections. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. 2020 BIPARTISAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE. 3 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established within 4 the Election Assistance Commission the 2020 Bipartisan 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 13 PCS Advisory Committee (referred to in this section as the 1 ‘‘Advisory Committee’’). 2 (b) MEMBERSHIP.— 3 (1) COMPOSITION.—The Advisory Committee 4 shall be composed of 18 members of whom— 5 (A) nine shall be appointed by the leader 6 of the Republican caucus in the Senate (in con- 7 sultation with the minority leader of the House 8 of Representatives), one of which shall be ap- 9 pointed as a Co-Chairperson of the Advisory 10 Committee; and 11 (B) nine shall be appointed by the Speaker 12 of the House of Representatives (in consultation 13 with the leader of the Democratic caucus in the 14 Senate), one of which shall be appointed as a 15 Co-Chairperson of the Advisory Committee. 16 (2) REPRESENTATION.—Individuals appointed 17 to the Advisory Committee under paragraph (1) 18 shall be geographically balanced and shall include 19 representatives of Federal, State, and local govern- 20 ments and of the legal, cybersecurity, and election 21 administration and technology communities. 22 (3) DATE.—The appointments of the members 23 of the Advisory Committee shall be made not later 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 13 PCS than 90 days after the date of enactment of this 1 Act. 2 (c) PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT; VACANCIES.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para- 4 graph (2), a member of the Advisory shall be ap- 5 pointed for the duration of the Advisory Committee. 6 (2) REMOVAL.—A member may be removed 7 from the Advisory Committee at any time at the 8 upon concurrence of both of the Co-Chairpersons of 9 the Advisory Committee. 10 (3) VACANCIES.—A vacancy in the Advisory 11 Committee— 12 (A) shall not affect the powers of the Com- 13 mission; and 14 (B) shall be filled in the same manner as 15 the original appointment. 16 (d) DUTIES.— 17 (1) STUDY.— 18 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Advisory Com- 19 mittee shall, consistent with applicable law, 20 study the integrity and administration of the 21 general election for Federal office held in No- 22 vember 2020 and make recommendations to 23 State legislatures to improve the security, integ- 24 rity, and administration of Federal elections. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 13 PCS (B) MATTERS STUDIED.—The matters 1 studied by the Advisory Committee shall in- 2 clude— 3 (i) the effects of the COVID–19 pan- 4 demic on the administration of the general 5 election for Federal office held in Novem- 6 ber 2020; 7 (ii) the election practices adopted by 8 Federal, State, and local governments in 9 response to the COVID–19 pandemic, in- 10 cluding— 11 (I) practices that undermined the 12 security and integrity of the election; 13 and 14 (II) practices that strengthened 15 the security and integrity of the elec- 16 tion; 17 (iii) the laws, rules, policies, activities, 18 strategies, and practices regarding mail-in 19 ballots, absentee ballots, and vote-by-mail 20 procedures, including— 21 (I) measures that undermined 22 the security and integrity of the elec- 23 tion; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 13 PCS (II) measures that strengthened 1 the security and integrity of the elec- 2 tion; 3 (iv) any laws, rules, policies, activities, 4 strategies, and practices that would have 5 allowed improper or fraudulent votes to be 6 cast in such election and the scope of any 7 improper and fraudulent votes that were 8 cast in the election; 9 (v) any laws, rules, policies, activities, 10 strategies, and practices, or failure to 11 apply such laws, rules, policies, activities, 12 strategies, and practices, that would have 13 allowed improper or fraudulent voter reg- 14 istration and the scope of any improper or 15 fraudulent voter registration; and 16 (vi) any laws, rules, policies, activities, 17 strategies, and practices that would bolster 18 public confidence in the integrity of future 19 general elections for Federal office and re- 20 duce the perceived possibility of fraud, in- 21 cluding, but not limited to, voter identifica- 22 tion statutes for both in-person and absen- 23 tee voting, increased voter list maintenance 24 policies pursuant to the National Voter 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 13 PCS Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 1 20501 et seq.), and use of the Electronic 2 Registration Information Center. 3 (2) REPORTS.— 4 (A) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 5 days after the date of the enactment of this 6 Act, the Advisory Committee shall submit to 7 the Election Assistance Commission and the ap- 8 propriate Congressional committees a report on 9 the matter studied under paragraph (1). Such 10 report shall include— 11 (i) precinct-by-precinct data high- 12 lighting the number and incidence of any 13 improper and fraudulent votes that were 14 cast in the election; and 15 (ii) precinct-by-precinct data high- 16 lighting the number and incidence of any 17 improper and fraudulent voter registra- 18 tions. 19 (B) RECOMMENDATIONS.— 20 (i) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 360 21 days after the date of the enactment of 22 this Act, the Advisory Committee shall 23 submit to the Election Assistance Commis- 24 sion and the appropriate Congressional 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 13 PCS committees recommendations on the fol- 1 lowing: 2 (I) The best practices that should 3 be adopted by at each level of local 4 and State Government for admin- 5 istering elections for Federal office— 6 (aa) during the COVID–19 7 pandemic; and 8 (bb) during other national 9 emergencies. 10 (II) The best practices that 11 should be adopted at each level of 12 local and State Government to miti- 13 gate fraud and increase the integrity 14 and security of mail-in ballots, absen- 15 tee ballots, and vote-by-mail proce- 16 dures. 17 (III) The best practices that 18 should be adopted at each level of 19 local and State Government to pre- 20 vent improper or fraudulent votes 21 from being cast. 22 (IV) The best practices that 23 should be adopted at each level of 24 local and State Government to pre- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 13 PCS vent improper voters from being reg- 1 istered. 2 (ii) MINORITY VIEWS.—In the case of 3 any recommendation with respect to which 4 one-third or more of the Committee does 5 not concur, the report shall include a jus- 6 tification for why such members do not 7 concur. 8 (C) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COM- 9 MITTEES.—For purposes of this paragraph, the 10 term ‘‘appropriate Congressional Committees’’ 11 means— 12 (i) the Committee on Rules and Ad- 13 ministration of the Senate; 14 (ii) the Committee on the Judiciary of 15 the Senate; 16 (iii) the Committee on House Admin- 17 istration of the House of Representatives; 18 and 19 (iv) the Committee on the Judiciary of 20 the House of Representatives. 21 (e) COMMISSION PERSONNEL MATTERS.— 22 (1) PROHIBITION ON COMPENSATION OF MEM- 23 BERS.—The members of the Advisory Committee 24 may not receive pay or benefits from the United 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 13 PCS States Government by reason of their service on the 1 Advisory Committee. 2 (2) STAFF.— 3 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each Co-Chairperson 4 of the Advisory Committee may appoint not 5 more than 5 subject matter experts to serve as 6 staff to the Advisory Committee. 7 (B) COMPENSATION.—The Co-Chair- 8 persons of the Advisory Committee may fix the 9 compensation of the staff of the Advisor Com- 10 mittee without regard to chapter 51 and sub- 11 chapter III of chapter 53 of title 5, United 12 States Code, relating to classification of posi- 13 tions and General Schedule pay rates, except 14 that the rate of pay for the staff may not ex- 15 ceed the rate payable for level V of the Execu- 16 tive Schedule under section 5316 of that title. 17 (f) TERMINATION.—The Advisory Committee shall 18 terminate 90 days after the date on which the Advisory 19 Committee submits the report required under subsection 20 (d). 21 (g) NONAPPLICABILITY OF FACA.—The Federal Ad- 22 visory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to 23 the Advisory Committee. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS Calendar No. 2 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 13 A BILL To establish an advisory committee to make rec- ommendations on improvements to the security, integrity, and administration of Federal elections. JANUARY 19, 2021 Read the second time and placed on the calendar VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:14 Jan 19, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S13.PCS S13 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS