Yesterday, DNI Ratcliffe & FBI Director Wray took an extraordinary step to ensure Americans have a clear insight into the efforts of our adversaries to undermine our democratic institutions, including U.S. election systems and infrastructure.
To the American people & the media, we repeat the need to be skeptical of sensationalist, last-minute claims about election infrastructure. State, local, & federal officials & partners in social media & tech should be proud of joint efforts to shut down Iranian & Russian efforts.
To our adversaries, we reiterate DNI Ratcliffe’s warning against interfering in America’s electoral process. Republicans & Democrats are united when we say that continued attempts to cast doubt on election results or disrupt our election systems will force a severe response.
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Just this morning, I encouraged Facebook to take the threat of QAnon more seriously, given increasing evidence that they have, in large part, propelled its growth. warner.senate.gov/public/index.c…
I’m pleased to see Facebook is now taking action against this harmful and increasingly dangerous conspiracy theory and movement.
We’ve seen in a myriad of other contexts, including concerning right-wing militias like the Boogaloos, that Facebook has repeatedly failed to enforce its existing policies consistently.
Our nation has a 200-year history of successful elections, followed by a peaceful transfer of power. Yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee received a briefing on election security from our nation’s top officials.
We all know that the election process will look different this year, in light of COVID-19, and we may not know the results on election night. The Intelligence Community (IC) warned that, as a result, the period immediately before and after the election could be uniquely volatile.
But we should continue to have faith in the state and local officials who are responsible for the conduct of our elections and the IC and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) officials who help to protect them, and make sure that all the votes are counted.
Despite the constant surge in COVID cases, @ICEgov has endangered a staggering number of lives of detainees and Virginians because it decided to transfer detainees during this pandemic. Have they no shame?
Sen. @timkaine and I have raised the alarm about these transfers before.
Earlier this month, my colleagues in Congress and I called on Secretary Sonny Perdue of the @USDA to extend several waiver requests made by the Commonwealth to ensure school districts have the certainty they need to continue providing students with healthy and nutritious meals.
The @USDA denied our request to extend the waivers to assist in the delivery of food to Virginia’s children during the ongoing pandemic, claiming they don’t have the authority to provide universal free meals during the crisis despite broad authority granted by Congress.
Over 30 million children rely on school meals every day. As many as 17 million children did not get enough to eat this summer. I urge the @USDA to reverse its decision and extend all school meal flexibilities to keep our kids from going hungry.
I’m glad the House Judiciary Committee called their hearing today. It’s important we inspect these companies and their business practices – and ensure that they aren’t unfairly disadvantaging competition and harming consumers.
As I’ve come to often say, ‘data is the new oil.’ But for the companies that have successfully built business models to collect it, it’s even better than oil: these companies capture not just our data but our attention, commerce, and social interactions.
Our country is in the middle of multiple crises. The COVID relief package released yesterday by Republicans is out of touch with the grim reality facing communities large & small across the nation, which local leaders of both parties have highlighted over the past several months.
The bill DOES NOT include:
1) Food assistance for kids
2) Hazard pay for essential workers
3) Rental assistance for millions facing evictions
4) Money for communities of color
5) Funding for state & local governments being forced to lay off workers
· The Senate GOP proposal ignores the warnings of local leaders & also those of economists who have cautioned about the long-term impacts of failing to address local gov't revenue shortfalls due to COVID-19.