Republican Sen. Susan Collins became the first member of her party to co-sponsor a bicameral election security bill aimed at preventing foreign interference.
The Maine senator announced Tuesday her support for the Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections Act, or FIRE Act, introduced last month by Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat.
Along with a similar bill pending in the House of Representatives, the measure would mandate that political campaigns notify the FBI and Federal Election Commission upon being contacted by any foreign national offering assistance.
It was proposed in May by Mr. Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in the wake of federal investigators uncovering a number of interactions between Russian nationals and members of President Trump’s election campaign while examining foreign interference in the 2016 race.
Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who led the special counsel’s investigation into the 2016 election on behalf of the Department of Justice, testified on Capitol Hill last Wednesday that the Russian government has already begun interfering in next year’s presidential race.
Mr. Warner took to the Senate floor hours after Mr. Mueller testified and requested unanimous consent to consider and pass the FIRE Act, but his proposal was blocked by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi Republican.
Democrats in the House subsequently introduced an identically titled companion bill the following day, though neither proposal managed to garner a Republican co-sponsor prior to Ms. Collins signing on this week.
“Russia’s efforts to interfere in our elections remain relentless,” Ms. Collins said in a statement. “I’m proud to join Senator Mark Warner in cosponsoring the bipartisan FIRE Act to require presidential candidates to immediately call the FBI if they are contacted by a foreign power attempting to target our elections.”
“Today I’m pleased to add @SenatorCollins as a sponsor of the FIRE Act,” Mr. Warner said on Twitter. “We need to make it clear for presidential campaigns going forward: if a foreign power contacts you attempting to interfere in our elections, you call the FBI.”
Indeed, a majority of Americans would seem to agree with the bill’s sponsors, according to the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. Eighty-seven percent of voters — including 80 percent of Republicans — support requiring that political campaigns notify the FBI about contacts from foreign governments, the poll concluded.
“One thing is clear: there is near-unanimous support for requiring political campaigns to report any information they receive from foreign governments to the FBI,” said Mary Snow, polling analyst for Quinnipiac.
The version of the FIRE Act introduced in the House last week is co-sponsored by Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, all Democrats.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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