According to a new CNN report, Republicans have just removed a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act that would have required political campaigns to report if a foreign country reaches out to them with an offer of assistance.
As the report notes, if the measure would have been in place in 2016, the Trump campaign would have had to report to the FBI that Russia had reached out to them.
According to Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Senate Republicans in the Intelligence Committee were the ones that voted against the provision. Yet, just two weeks ago, the committee had voted to approve the amendment as part of the Intelligence Authorization Act.
“That bill, however, was unlikely to get Senate floor time on its own, which is why it’s being included in the National Defense Authorization Act,” CNN explained. “The effort to strip the foreign election help provision from the intelligence bill was not a surprise, as acting Senate Intelligence Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, predicted earlier this month it would be removed before the bill was on the floor, because of an objection from the Senate Rules Committee.”
Warner attacked the move in a floor speech Tuesday.
“If my Republican colleagues want to strip this legislation out of the NDAA behind closed doors, then I’m going to offer it up as an amendment to force an up-or-down vote and put every member of this body on the record,” he said.