House Speaker Paul Ryan organized for lawmakers a classified briefing with Trump administration officials Tuesday morning to discuss what the federal government is doing to protect the integrity of upcoming elections.
At a briefing attended by about 40 or 50 members of the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives, the heads of FBI, Homeland Security Department and the director of National Intelligence told members to urge states and cities overseeing elections to be prepared for threats.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters she agreed Russia was trying to influence the 2018 elections.
“We see them continuing to conduct foreign influence campaigns,” Nielsen said, but added there is no evidence of Russia targeting specific races.
Democrats have questioned whether the Trump administration has acted forcefully enough to prevent other countries from meddling with U.S. election results after intelligence agencies concluded that Russia sought to help President Donald Trump and hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential contest ...
Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, said after the meeting that “I don’t feel confident” that the Homeland Security Department and other agencies are doing enough to secure future elections. Much of the briefing focused on Russia, but there are "others out there" seeking to do the same thing, he said.
"I didn’t walk away thinking that we’re there yet" in terms of being prepared, he said.
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James Langevin, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said after the briefing that "states have had better interaction with the federal government than they did prior to the 2016 election but there are still weaknesses in the system," especially making sure there’s a paper trail ...
Chris Krebs, a senior DHS cybersecurity official, told Reuters in an interview that the administration was sending states guidance on how to spend the $380 million approved by Congress in March to help safeguard U.S. voting systems from cyber attacks expected to be distributed later this week.
DHS is assisting 48 states with election security and handed out a chart at the briefing to members seen by Reuters that said states need to have auditable systems, spend time on planning, training and drills and they should “consider investing in full system architecture reviews.”
Representative Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said after the briefing that members are concerned that “not only Russia but possibly other foreign adversaries are now going to start looking at how they can meddle in the midterm elections and we need to be prepared. We were caught off guard last time.”
DHS is offering states voluntary cyber services, including remote checks of their election systems and on-site vulnerability assessments. It’s also granting security clearances to election officials, though they haven’t all been finalized.
States are now deciding how to use their share of $380 million in federal election security grants that came with the omnibus spending package earlier this year. But it’s hardly enough to update aging voting equipment in most states ahead of the November polls, and many state officials are hoping Congress will approve more dollars.
Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, told reporters after the briefing the federal government should quickly alert states if they learn of election system hacking.
He also wants a “real-time communications channel” between the intelligence community and technology companies in order to assure that internet firms are notified if evidence emerges that Russia is creating fake Facebook ... pages or taking other actions to influence the elections.
Election Security a Top Concern, Trump Officials Assure Lawmakers (Bloomberg Politics)
U.S. officials warn Congress on election hacking threats (Reuters)