Erin Kelly

Electric cooperatives need Congress to improve critical broadband programs to bring high-speed internet service to rural America, said NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. More than 200 electric co-ops across the US are deploying broadband or developing plans to do so. Matheson asked the committee to make key improvements to broadband programs at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as it develops the Farm Bill:

Russian hackers likely scanned the election systems of all 50 states for vulnerabilities in 2016 — not just the 21 states confirmed as targets by homeland security officials in 2017, said Michael Daniel, the cybersecurity czar for former President Barack Obama, to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Daniel said that the federal government should invest more money in cybersecurity for state election systems.

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie told House Democrats that former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon used the firm's research to discourage Democrats from voting in the 2016 election. Democrats from the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked Wylie whether Bannon had specifically talked about voter disenfranchisement or disengagement. "Yes," Wylie responded, according to the transcript released by the Democrats.

President Donald Trump refused to authorize the release of a Democratic rebuttal to a Republican intelligence committee memo alleging that FBI and Justice Department officials abused their power to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The White House said it could not release the Democrats' memo because the Justice Department "has identified portions...which it believes would create especially significant concerns for the national security and law enforcement interests." That explanation stands in stark contrast to his release of the GOP memo.