Election security funding is at the center of a new push by two top Democrats who say the Trump administration has not released money Congress directed to protect state and local elections ahead of the midterms.
Sen. Alex Padilla of California and Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency chief Nick Anderson, urging them to restore more than $39.6 million for specific election security programs mandated in the fiscal year 2026 Department of Homeland Security appropriations law passed in April.
“With the midterm elections occurring in two months, we write with grave concern that time is running out … to assist state and local election officials in protecting our elections from cyber and mis-and disinformation threats,” the lawmakers wrote. DHS and CISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Election security funding and EI-ISAC gaps
Padilla, the ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, and Morelle, the ranking member on the Committee on House Administration, highlighted shortfalls for the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a key hub that has provided free, voluntary cybersecurity alerts and threat intelligence to state, local, tribal, and territorial election offices. After funding cuts in March 2025, the center shifted to a paid membership model with limited services, which the lawmakers said under-resourced communities cannot afford.
Concern over foreign interference surged after the 2016 election, when U.S. intelligence concluded Russia attempted to sway voters by leaking damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Since then, officials say the landscape has grown more complex, with other adversaries, including Iran, working to undermine confidence in U.S. elections and promote preferred candidates and policies.
While widespread hacking of voting machines has not occurred, hack-and-leak operations and online disinformation have influenced coverage and public perception.
Administration cuts and growing threats
The lawmakers argued that the Trump administration has treated election security as a political issue, dedicating resources to challenge the intelligence community’s 2016 findings and to advance unfounded claims of fraud in 2020, including a July primetime speech alleging vulnerabilities without new evidence. They also cited cuts to federal election security efforts and staffing reductions at CISA.
Padilla and Morelle pointed to the urgency of the situation given active U.S. conflicts, a rapid rise in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, and advances in artificial intelligence that can discover software vulnerabilities faster. “This is particularly disturbing at a time when our nation is at war with the Republic of Iran, which has reportedly engaged in sophisticated cybersecurity attacks, including on water infrastructure in the United States and nuclear energy facilities in the United Kingdom,” they wrote, adding that Russia, China, and other actors also possess significant and evolving interference capabilities.
Call to release funds before November
The lawmakers said the administration is unlikely to repair trust with election officials before November, but they emphasized DHS and CISA are obligated to distribute the appropriated funds to the information-sharing center and to support regional election security advisory roles nationwide.
“The failure to restore this funding as directed by Congress is a disservice to the thousands of election jurisdictions across this country,” they wrote.
The lawmakers’ concerns come as U.S.-Iran tensions continue to shape security and foreign policy debates heading into the midterms.
More information about the Department of Homeland Security is available on the official DHS website, and details about the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency can be found at the CISA homepage.
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