Election integrity unites cadre on Hill

Freshman lawmakers band together on effort

WASHINGTON — For the past eight weeks, seven freshman members of Congress have quietly met each Monday in a spare House conference room to tackle a problem they think their more senior colleagues haven’t done enough to address: election security.

The six Democrats and one Republican call themselves Task Force Sentry, a title meant to signal their focus on crafting legislation to keep foreign adversaries from interfering with the U.S. political system.

“We’re drawing a line in the sand,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., a former CIA operations officer. “We’re standing watch. We’ve been attacked, and a sentry stands watch to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report detailed how Russian operatives used information warfare to attack the 2016 U.S. election process. But those details have been largely overshadowed by the debate over the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russia. That prompted the freshman lawmakers to take on the issue themselves.

“There was a national security aspect of (election security) that I don’t think any of us thought was really being addressed,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., said at a group sit-down with The Associated Press on Thursday.

The group consists of Spanberger, Sherrill, Republican Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Democrats Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico.

Among the areas they’re targeting for proposed legislation is requiring individuals or entities receiving foreign funds to disclose where those funds come from. For the Russian state-funded TV channel RT, for example, “there should be a big, fat disclosure at the bottom of the screen saying ‘Paid for by the Russian government,’” Slotkin said.

Their legislative ideas are still being drafted but could be included in other bills as soon as next month.

J. Scott Applewhite The Associated Press From left, Reps. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., are among seven freshman House lawmakers who make up a group that is giving special emphasis to election security.