Protect our Elections Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4777 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to take steps to ensure domestic ownership and control of election service pro- viders, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OCTOBER 21, 2019 Mr. VAN DREW (for himself, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma, Mr. FOR- TENBERRY, Mr. STEUBE, Ms. SPANBERGER, Ms. TORRES SMALL of New Mexico, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. CRENSHAW) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration A BILL To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require States to take steps to ensure domestic ownership and control of election service providers, and for other pur- poses. 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 ‘‘Protect our Elections 4 Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4777 IH SEC. 2. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL 1 OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Help America 3 Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21083 et seq.) is amended— 4 (1) by redesignating sections 304 and 305 as 5 sections 305 and 306; and 6 (2) by inserting after section 303 the following 7 new section: 8 ‘‘SEC. 304. ENSURING DOMESTIC OWNERSHIP AND CON- 9 TROL OF ELECTION SYSTEMS. 10 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS TO 11 BE QUALIFIED.—Each State, unit of local government, or 12 component of a State or unit of local government which 13 is responsible for the administration of an election for 14 Federal office shall ensure that each election service pro- 15 vider who provides, supports, or maintains any component 16 of an election system used in the administration of the 17 election is a qualified election service provider. 18 ‘‘(b) ANNUAL EVALUATION TO ENSURE COMPLI- 19 ANCE.—Each State, unit of local government, or compo- 20 nent of a State or unit of local government which is re- 21 sponsible for the administration of an election for Federal 22 office shall, not less frequently than once each calendar 23 year, evaluate each election service provider to ensure that 24 the election service provider is a qualified election service 25 provider. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4777 IH ‘‘(c) CYBERSECURITY BEST PRACTICES.—Not later 1 than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this sec- 2 tion, the Chair of the Commission and the Secretary of 3 Homeland Security shall establish and publish cybersecu- 4 rity best practices for election service providers who pro- 5 vide, support, or maintain election systems, and shall es- 6 tablish and publish updates to such best practices at such 7 times as the Chair and the Secretary consider appropriate. 8 ‘‘(d) GUIDANCE AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Chair of the Commis- 10 sion and the Secretary of Homeland Security may 11 provide such guidance and technical assistance as 12 may be appropriate to assist each State, unit of local 13 government, or component of a State or unit of local 14 government which is responsible for the administra- 15 tion of an election for Federal office with its obliga- 16 tions under this section. 17 ‘‘(2) DATABASE OF QUALIFIED ELECTION SERV- 18 ICE PROVIDERS.—As part of providing guidance and 19 technical assistance under this subsection, the Com- 20 mission shall establish and maintain a database in 21 which each State, unit of local government, or com- 22 ponent of a State or unit of local government which 23 is responsible for the administration of an election 24 for Federal office can verify whether an election 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4777 IH service provider is a qualified election service pro- 1 vider. 2 ‘‘(e) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER AND QUALIFIED 3 ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER DEFINED.— 4 ‘‘(1) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER.—In this 5 section, the term ‘election service provider’ means 6 any person providing, supporting, or maintaining an 7 election system on behalf of an election agency, such 8 as a contractor or vendor. 9 ‘‘(2) QUALIFIED ELECTION SERVICE PRO- 10 VIDER.— 11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In this section, the 12 term ‘qualified election service provider’ means 13 an election service provider who meets each of 14 the following criteria, as established and pub- 15 lished by the Chair of the Commission in co- 16 ordination with the Secretary of Homeland Se- 17 curity: 18 ‘‘(i) Except as provided in subpara- 19 graph (C), the election service provider is 20 solely owned and controlled by United 21 States persons or persons described in sub- 22 paragraph (B). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4777 IH ‘‘(ii) The election service provider sub- 1 mits in accordance with section 3(a) of the 2 Protect our Elections Act— 3 ‘‘(I) notice of any material 4 change in ownership or control of the 5 election service provider; and 6 ‘‘(II) any other information re- 7 quired to be reported under that sec- 8 tion. 9 ‘‘(iii) The election service provider 10 agrees to ensure that the election systems 11 will be developed and maintained in a man- 12 ner that is consistent with the cybersecu- 13 rity best practices established under sub- 14 section (c). 15 ‘‘(iv) The election service provider 16 agrees to maintain its information tech- 17 nology infrastructure in a manner that is 18 consistent with the cybersecurity best prac- 19 tices established under subsection (c). 20 ‘‘(v) The election service provider 21 shall report any known or suspected inci- 22 dents involving election systems to the 23 chief State election official of the State in- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4777 IH volved or the official’s designee, the Chair, 1 and the Secretary. 2 ‘‘(B) PERSONS DESCRIBED.—For purposes 3 of subparagraph (A)(i), a person described in 4 this subparagraph is a corporation or business 5 entity that is created or organized under the 6 laws of a country that is party to the UK–USA 7 Agreement for joint cooperation in signals intel- 8 ligence, military intelligence, and human intel- 9 ligence, also known as the ‘Five Eyes alliance’. 10 ‘‘(C) PERMITTING WAIVER OF DOMESTIC 11 OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL REQUIREMENT FOR 12 CERTAIN SUBSIDIARIES.—The Secretary of 13 Homeland Security may waive the requirement 14 of clause (i) of subparagraph (A) with respect 15 to a person who is a United States subsidiary 16 of a parent company which has implemented a 17 foreign ownership or control mitigation plan 18 that has been approved by the Secretary. Such 19 plan shall ensure that the parent company can- 20 not control, influence, or direct the subsidiary 21 in any manner that would compromise or influ- 22 ence, or give the appearance of compromising 23 or influencing, the independence and integrity 24 of an election. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4777 IH ‘‘(D) INCIDENT DEFINED.—For purposes 1 of subparagraph (A)(v), the term ‘incident’ has 2 the meaning given that term in section 3 3552(b)(2) of title 44, United States Code. 4 ‘‘(f) ELECTION SYSTEM DEFINED.—In this section, 5 the term ‘election system’ means a voting system, an elec- 6 tion management system, a voter registration website or 7 database, an electronic pollbook, a system for tabulating 8 or reporting election results, an election agency commu- 9 nications system, or any other information system (as de- 10 fined in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code) that 11 the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with 12 the Commission, identifies as central to the management, 13 support, or administration of a Federal election. 14 ‘‘(g) OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL DEFINED.—The 15 Commission, in consultation with the Secretary of the 16 Treasury, shall issue regulations defining the terms ‘own- 17 ership’ and ‘control’ for purposes of this section.’’. 18 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO EN- 19 FORCEMENT.—Section 401 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 21111) 20 is amended by striking ‘‘and 303’’ and inserting ‘‘303, and 21 304’’. 22 (c) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of contents 23 of such Act is amended— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 4777 IH (1) by redesignating the items relating to sec- 1 tions 304 and 305 as relating to sections 305 and 2 306; and 3 (2) by inserting after the item relating to sec- 4 tion 303 the following new item: 5 ‘‘Sec. 304. Ensuring domestic ownership and control of election systems.’’. (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 6 this section shall apply with respect to elections for Fed- 7 eral office held in 2020 or any succeeding year. 8 SEC. 3. INFORMATION SHARING WITH RESPECT TO OWNER- 9 SHIP OF ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDERS. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Each election service provider 11 shall submit to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the 12 Election Assistance Commission, and appropriate State or 13 local governmental entities the following: 14 (1) Not later than the date that is 90 days 15 after the later of the date of the enactment of this 16 section or the date that a person first becomes an 17 election service provider, a report listing the identity 18 of any foreign national (as defined in section 319(b) 19 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 20 U.S.C. 30121(b))) who directly or indirectly owns or 21 controls such election service provider and the per- 22 centage of such ownership, and any other informa- 23 tion necessary to determine whether the election 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 4777 IH service provider is a qualified election service pro- 1 vider. 2 (2) Not later than 90 days after the date of any 3 material change in ownership or control of such elec- 4 tion service provider, a notice of such change and an 5 update of any information previously reported under 6 paragraph (1). 7 (b) CIVIL PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO REPORT.—If 8 an election service provider fails to submit a report re- 9 quired under subsection (a), the Attorney General may, 10 after notice and opportunity for hearing, impose a civil 11 fine of $20,000. 12 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 13 (1) APPROPRIATE STATE OR LOCAL GOVERN- 14 MENTAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘appropriate State or 15 local governmental entity’’ means, with respect to an 16 election service provider, any State or local govern- 17 mental entity that the election service provider seeks 18 to contract with, contracts with, or otherwise pro- 19 vides services to provide, support, or maintain an 20 election system. 21 (2) ELECTION SERVICE PROVIDER; ELECTION 22 SYSTEM; QUALIFIED ELECTION SERVICE PRO- 23 VIDER.—The terms ‘‘election service provider’’, 24 ‘‘election system’’, and ‘‘qualified election service 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 4777 IH provider’’ have the meaning given those terms in 1 section 304 of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, 2 as added by section 2. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:33 Oct 27, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4777.IH H4777 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS