Thompson, Himes Demand DHS Election Security Briefing
(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, announced they sent a letter to Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to demand an urgent briefing on how the Department of Homeland Security is sharing election-related threat intelligence with state and local election officials and how it is helping them with election security efforts.
The Ranking Members highlighted how the DHS components responsible for engaging with state and local governments to share information about election-related threats— the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)— have had their workforces slashed by the Trump administration and their election security efforts curtailed.
“We are very concerned that these staffing and strategic changes have undermined DHS’s ability to effectively partner with state and local election officials and to share information about threats to the upcoming election. State and local election officials are equally concerned,” the Ranking Members wrote. “On one hand, they have so drastically lost trust in the Department that they are reluctant to share the threat information they observe. On the other, they have no confidence that DHS will share timely threat intelligence with them. This critical information sharing is not possible to replicate without the full, good-faith participation of federal and non-federal partners.”
“State and local election officials are under tremendous pressure this election cycle. In addition to the administration’s attempts to police voter rolls and impose new election rules, election officials are facing threats to their physical safety. Just this week, several election offices across the country were sent suspicious substances. We must ensure that DHS is providing state and local election officials the support necessary to carry out their critical mission.”
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