Democrats press DHS on election security funding

Two congressional Democrats are pressing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “explain the delay as to why federal funds have not yet been provided” to local and state election officials for election security.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Mullin and Nick Anderson, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), over “grave concern that time is running out” for the agencies “to assist state and local election officials in protecting our elections from cyber and mis- and disinformation threats.”

The lawmakers expressed frustration that it had been more than four months since DHS and CISA were given “clear, bipartisan instructions” to continue “Election Security Program activities funded in fiscal year 2024.”

This included failing to give funding for the continuation of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, also known as EI-ISAC, which “provided election security services to local election offices.”

“However, under your leadership, CISA has still not provided any of the over $39.6 million in appropriated funds to the EI-ISAC,” the pair wrote. “The failure to restore this funding as directed by Congress is a disservice to the thousands of election jurisdictions across this country.”

Padilla and Morelle also mentioned concern that CISA was “only just beginning to take steps to reestablish working relationships with election officials and rehire critical staff ahead of the 2026 midterms” after the agency lost hundreds of personnel .

“This is particularly disturbing at a time when our nation is at war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has reportedly engaged in sophisticated cybersecurity attacks,” they stated.

The Democrats referenced August attacks on local water systems in Minnesota, Michigan and New Jersey that resulted in “loss of monitoring and control functionality,” according to the FBI. CISA warned on July 22 of “ongoing Iranian-affiliated” cyberattacks on water facilities , days before the slew of attacks.

“Russia, China, and other foreign and non-state actors also have significant cyber and online election interference capabilities, which are likely increasing with advances in artificial intelligence technology,” the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers requested funding be distributed to the election analysis center and gave the leaders until Sept. 9 to respond to the letter “on the status of the disbursement of this funding and the hiring of critical election roles at CISA.”