Hoyer, Democrats Send Letter Requesting Funding to Secure Election Systems Against Russian Hacking

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) joined Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Robert A. Brady (D-PA), House Committee on Homeland Security Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and eleven other House Democrats in sending a letter to the Appropriations Committee requesting an additional $14 million in funding for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to secure voting systems against cyberattacks. 

More than a year after intelligence agencies certified that Russian entities attempted to infiltrate U.S. election systems and access voter rolls in multiple states, the Trump Administration has not yet taken any steps to protect voters seeking to cast ballots in 2018 or thereafter.  Funding for the EAC, which helps states adopt the latest technologies and share best practices, has been underfunded for the last several years, and Members are only requesting that appropriators return to the same funding levels as 2009.  In the letter, the Members also request that $400 million of funds originally authorized for the EAC, but never appropriated, be directed toward cybersecurity training and grants for states to safeguard their voting systems from hacking. 

“Our letter seeks to ensure that the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) can do what it was established to do: protect every American’s right to cast a ballot and have it counted accurately,” Whip Hoyer said.  “When I wrote the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which created the EAC, I did so with bipartisan support for safe and secure voting systems.  Today, thanks to that legislation, butterfly ballots and hanging chads are no longer a problem; instead, our greatest challenge is a concerted effort by Russia to hack into voting systems and voter rolls in order to undermine confidence in our elections.  The funding we request will directly address this challenge and help states protect their voting systems against cyberattacks and other forms of interference.  If the President is serious about protecting voting systems, as he stated today, he ought to support this request and join us in asking the Appropriations Committee to provide the EAC with these resources.”

“The EAC is the only federal agency charged with making American elections more secure, accessible, accurate, and transparent,” the letter states.  “It has built strong relationships with state and local election officials as well as cybersecurity experts, and has been vital to helping states understand and respond to the threats confronting their election infrastructure.  The EAC has worked diligently, with a bare-bones budget, over the past few years to provide guidance on cybersecurity and election technology.  But at this critical time, the Commission needs additional resources to fully respond to the needs of the states.  …We cannot leave states to their own devices in defending against the sophisticated cyber tactics of foreign governments.   An attack on the electoral infrastructure in one state is an attack on all of democracy in America.”

To read the full letter, click here or see below. 

March 6, 2018

The Honorable Rodney P. Frelinghuysen               
Chairman                                                                   
Committee on Appropriations                                   
United States House of Representatives                             
Washington, D.C. 20515                                           

The Honorable Nita M. Lowey
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Tom Graves                                       
Chairman                                                                    
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government                                                 
Committee on Appropriations                                     
United States House of Representatives                   
Washington, D.C. 20515                                            

The Honorable Mike Quigley
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
Committee on Appropriations
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Frelinghuysen, Chairman Graves, Ranking Member Lowey, and Ranking Member Quigley:

We write to express strong support for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and to respectfully request that the EAC receive $14 million so it can continue to assist states in their urgent efforts to secure voting systems in advance of the 2018 midterm elections.  In addition, we request that you appropriate $400 million under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) for states to use to replace aging and vulnerable voting machines and to provide cybersecurity training.[1] Intelligence officials continue to warn that our state-based electoral system is a target for foreign meddling and cyber-attacking, and we believe this money is necessary to protect American elections against the possibility of imminent attack.[2] 

The EAC is the only federal agency charged with making American elections more secure, accessible, accurate, and transparent.  It has built strong relationships with state and local election officials as well as cybersecurity experts, and has been vital to helping states understand and respond to the threats confronting their election infrastructure.  The EAC has worked diligently, with a bare-bones budget, over the past few years to provide guidance on cybersecurity and election technology.  But at this critical time, the Commission needs additional resources to fully respond to the needs of the states.

Providing the EAC with additional funds would enable them to hire two additional staffers whose exclusive responsibilities would be to work directly with state and local election officials, as well as cybersecurity experts, on improving cybersecurity.  In addition, the agency could hire two additional researchers to develop best practices on cybersecurity and risk-limiting audits, and to create materials to train election officials and poll workers on security issues.  The EAC would also be able to hold a summit to bring together computer scientists, “white hat” hackers, and academics to examine election technologies and expose any vulnerabilities before the equipment is put to use.  Finally, the EAC could increase the amount of funds it transfers to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to $2.5 million which would enable NIST to provide further technical expertise on voting machine standards.

Furthermore, states need an additional $400 million in grants under HAVA to be appropriated so they can safeguard their voting infrastructure. The single most urgent need is for states using paperless machines to replace their outdated equipment with paper ballot voting systems.  The Brennan Center estimates that the cost to replace paperless voting machines is between $130 and $400 million, and states do not have the money to do it themselves.[3]  Moreover, state and local officials have expressed a desire for Congress to step in.  In December 2017, the National Association of Secretaries of States (NASS) called upon Congress to provide the states with the remaining HAVA funds.  President of NASS and Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson said, “The challenges faced by state and local election officials in 2017 are quite different from those we faced in 2002.”[4]

Appropriating a new round of HAVA grants would not address all security concerns.  As you may know, the Congressional Task Force on Election Security found that states need funding to hire IT staff, upgrade and maintain IT infrastructure, implement risk limiting audits, develop more secure election technology, and for cybersecurity training.  Toward that end, its legislative proposal requests a total of $1.8 billion – half of the amount initially authorized to fight hanging chads in HAVA – over ten years to replace all non-secure voting machines, maintain and upgrade elections systems, provide ongoing cyber security training, help states implement risk limiting audits, and invest in innovative election technology.   But the $400 million already authorized would allow states to address their biggest vulnerability by replacing paperless voting machines and would represent an important down payment on tackling this long-term national security challenge. 

We cannot leave states to their own devices in defending against the sophisticated cyber tactics of foreign governments.   An attack on the electoral infrastructure in one state is an attack on all of democracy in America.  Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security, and Grover Norquist wrote in The Washington Post, “It’s not practical to expect local election administrators in rural Missouri or small-town Maine to go toe-to-toe with the premier government-backed cyber-mercenaries in China or North Korea.  Just as federal agencies prudently provide support for state law enforcement in dealing with terrorism, federal officials should give guidance and support in dealing with the election cybersecurity threat.” 

We urge you to fully fund HAVA and provide the EAC with the support it needs so that the federal government can meaningfully assist states in securing our election systems. 

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Very truly yours,