Updated at 5:40 p.m. with House passage of the bill.

WASHINGTON — Two North Texas Democrats are leading the push for a bill aimed at keeping foreign interference out of U.S. elections, accusing Republicans on Wednesday of trying to stymie an effort they view as a no-brainer.

“I find this to be one of the most frustrating issues I’ve seen in my time here in Congress,” said Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, a former voting rights lawyer. “I have a hard time understanding how anyone is in favor of foreign influence in our elections.”

The House voted 227 to 181 to approve the SHIELD Act, which would require federal campaigns to report offers of election assistance from foreign governments and individuals to the FBI and Federal Election Commission. No Republicans supported the bill.

The bill also would tighten restrictions on political advertisements on social media.

“It’s a very crucial piece of legislation that fights foreign interference in our electoral system,” said Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, who worked with Allred and others on the measure. “If we don’t have our electoral system safe and protected, it really does tear at the fabric of our democracy.”

The bill appears to be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called it “a textbook example of policy designed to reduce the amount of free speech in our country.”

Several House Democrats at a news conference Wednesday took issue with his assertion that the bill would undermine the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.

“My neighbors in North Texas have First Amendment rights, too,” Allred said. “Their First Amendment rights were being drowned out in my election in 2018 by foreign influences that had an agenda that wasn’t necessarily an American agenda or the North Texas agenda.”

The Democrats pointed to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller found that Russia used social media to carry out a disinformation campaign aimed at stirring divisions and aiding Donald Trump — a conclusion that Trump has vehemently rejected.

In July, Mueller told Congress that foreign interference was occurring “as we sit here.”

“It is becoming more crucial than ever that we take every action to strengthen our election system and to make sure that all Texans and all Americans, especially those that are people of color, minorities and those have been disenfranchised, have all the resources they need to participate in our democracy,” Veasey said.

Since Mueller’s testimony, the House has passed several bills on election security that the Senate has blocked.