In the letter dated Tuesday, a bicameral group of Republicans and Democrats asked that the House sergeant at arms and the chief administrative officer” take immediate action to secure phone calls” involving the House and Senate. The group of 20 lawmakers, including Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Ed Markey (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), are requesting that the officials offer a strategy to secure calls by June 12th. There are no prerequisites for calls.

Implementation varies based on the infrastructure of systems, although voice calls are encrypted. In August 2018, the Senate enabled phone encryption features to its desk telephones, and calls made on”newer versions” of desk phones in the House will also be fastened. According to the letter, the Pentagon’s Defense Information Systems Agency proposed government agencies in the federal, state, and local levels to”work towards protecting their unclassified networks by applying encryption technologies” in February 2019.

Since that time, the Pentagon has moved toward data encryption. “Calls between the Senate and House are still vulnerable to spying by anybody who gains access to the data link between the two Chambers,” the lawmakers wrote. “Congress must secure itself from the significant threat posed by foreign spies.”