Strengthening Elections Through Intelligence Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1474 To require the Director of National Intelligence to submit a pre-election threat assessment prior to each regularly scheduled general election for Federal office, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 28, 2019 Ms. SPANBERGER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence A BILL To require the Director of National Intelligence to submit a pre-election threat assessment prior to each regularly scheduled general election for Federal office, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Strengthening Elec- 4 tions Through Intelligence Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. PRE-ELECTION THREAT ASSESSMENTS. 6 (a) SUBMISSION OF ASSESSMENT BY DNI.—Not 7 later than 180 days before the date of each regularly 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Mar 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1474.IH H1474 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1474 IH scheduled general election for Federal office, the Director 1 of National Intelligence shall submit an assessment of the 2 full scope of threats to election infrastructure, including 3 cybersecurity threats posed by state actors and terrorist 4 groups, and recommendations to address or mitigate the 5 threats, as developed by the Secretary and Chairman, to— 6 (1) the chief State election official of each 7 State; 8 (2) the Committees on Homeland Security and 9 House Administration of the House of Representa- 10 tives and the Committees on Homeland Security and 11 Governmental Affairs and Rules and Administration 12 of the Senate; and 13 (3) any other appropriate congressional com- 14 mittees. 15 (b) UPDATES TO INITIAL ASSESSMENTS.—If, at any 16 time after submitting an assessment with respect to an 17 election under subsection (a), the Director of National In- 18 telligence determines that the assessment should be up- 19 dated to reflect new information regarding the threats in- 20 volved, the Director shall submit a revised assessment 21 under such subsection. 22 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi- 23 nitions apply: 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Mar 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1474.IH H1474 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1474 IH (1) The term ‘‘Chairman’’ means the chair of 1 the Election Assistance Commission. 2 (2) The term ‘‘chief State election official’’ 3 means, with respect to a State, the individual des- 4 ignated by the State under section 10 of the Na- 5 tional Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 6 20509) to be responsible for coordination of the 7 State’s responsibilities under such Act. 8 (3) The term ‘‘election infrastructure’’ means 9 storage facilities, polling places, and centralized vote 10 tabulation locations used to support the administra- 11 tion of elections for public office, as well as related 12 information and communications technology, includ- 13 ing voter registration databases, voting machines, 14 electronic mail and other communications systems 15 (including electronic mail and other systems of ven- 16 dors who have entered into contracts with election 17 agencies to support the administration of elections, 18 manage the election process, and report and display 19 election results), and other systems used to manage 20 the election process and to report and display elec- 21 tion results on behalf of an election agency. 22 (4) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 23 of Homeland Security. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Mar 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1474.IH H1474 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 1474 IH (5) The term ‘‘State’’ has the meaning given 1 such term in section 901 of the Help America Vote 2 Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21141). 3 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This Act shall apply with re- 4 spect to the regularly scheduled general election for Fed- 5 eral office held in November 2020 and each succeeding 6 regularly scheduled general election for Federal office. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:06 Mar 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1474.IH H1474 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS