House Democrats seek DHS briefing on sharing election threat intelligence with state, local officials

“This letter is to formalize previously made requests for the Department of Homeland Security to brief the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on how the Department is sharing election-related threat intelligence with state and local election officials,” Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Jim Himes (D-CT) write in the Oct. 20 letter.

Thomspon and Himes write, “As election day draws closer, it is critical that our committees understand how DHS is supporting state and local election officials as they seek to administer secure elections.” The request comes less than two weeks before Election Day and highlights workforce cuts under the second Trump administration at CISA and the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis, as well as cuts to election security efforts. Thompson and Himes explain how CISA participated in multi-agency classified briefings over the summer to “staff from several committees,” but argue that “congressional attendees at the briefings were struck by the relative lack of coordination among interagency partners.” The letter says, “The deficiency appeared particularly acute with respect to the roles, responsibilities, and processes for sharing election threat information with state and local partners.” Thompson and Himes also note that I&A has accompanied CISA on briefings to Congress on DHS’ election security activities in the past but wasn’t included in the briefings earlier this year. “Both CISA and I&A have experienced significant workforce losses over the past 21 months.

CISA has lost nearly 1,000, or one-third, of its employees and eliminated its election security team. CISA also terminated funding for the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), two entities that provided unique cybersecurity support of state and local entities and served as a force multiplier for information sharing,” the letter says. DHS was required to restore funding to the EI-ISAC through dedicated funds in the fiscal 2026 spending package but Thompson and Himes emphasize that DHS has refused to comply with the law.

Thompson and Himes also highlight CISA’s election infrastructure security plan published on Sept. 24, but argue it “arrived weeks behind schedule—too late to be of use to state and local election officials.” The plan “largely restated a generic menu of services it provides for all critical infrastructure,” according to the two lawmakers. The letter says, “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.” It continues, “We must ensure that DHS is providing state and local election officials the support necessary to carry out their critical mission. Accordingly, we request that you make available individuals from both CISA and I&A for a briefing this week or next week so that we can better understand how these components are supporting state and local election officials as they strive to administer secure elections.” Himes provided an update on his concerns in an Oct.

21 media briefing with Senate Intelligence ranking member Mark Warner (D-VA) on election security. Himes said the intelligence committees “asked and received the required classified summary of influence and interference.” But he said, “We have not received a bunch of things that we have asked for, which is the traditional declassification of the 2024 classified report.” The House Intelligence Committee also has not received the “statutorily required” briefings for 120 days, 60 and 30 days before the 2026 election, Himes said. He noted that both committees received a report on Oct.