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Sen. Mark Warner said he wants cyber interference met with a cyber response

(CNN) Sen. Mark Warner wants to add election-hacking to a proposed US policy outlining when and how the US should respond to cyber attacks.

The Virginia Democrat is submitting an amendment to the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act that would add cyber attacks on federal, state and local elections to a policy that declares the US should "employ all instruments of national power, including the use of offensive cyber capabilities," to respond to cyber threats to US interests, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by CNN.

Warner's amendment would add election-hacking to a US policy on "cyberspace, cybersecurity and cyber warfare" in the defense authorization bill spearheaded by Senate armed services chairman John McCain. The new cyber policy, which will still have to be reconciled with the House's defense bill, also includes cyber attacks causing casualties, significant disruptions to critical infrastructure and threats to the command and control of the US military as reasons for a US cyber response.

"We still have a President that fails to fully acknowledge the fact that Russia attacked our country, threatened to undermine our democratic process. The Congress needs to continue to send clear signals," Warner said of President Donald Trump in an interview.

"This is an area that still needs further refinement -- I don't believe we have a really fully thought-through cyber doctrine," Warner added. "But any such doctrine must include the sanctity of the electoral process."

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