The Trump administration has cut millions of dollars in federal funding from two security activities, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials.
The U. S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, has ended about$ 10 million in annual revenue to the volunteer Center for Internet Security, a CISA spokesperson said in an email Monday.
It’s the latest move by administration officials to rein in the federal government’s role in , which has prompted worries about an erosion of scaffolding to prevent foreign interference in U. S. elections.
CISA announced a few weeks ago that it was conducting a review of its election-related function, and more than a few employees who have worked on elections were placed on administrative leave. That followed an management shift to dissolve an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence businesses, including those that target U. S. elections.
” I have grave concern for state and local election officials and for the safety of our elections going forwards”, said Larry Norden, an election security analyst at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s School of Law.
In recent years, CISA has faced sustained censure from Republicans over previous attempts to counter misinformation about the 2020 presidential election and the coronavirus pandemic. Previous CISA command had said the organization always engaged in censorship and only worked with claims to help them notify social media companies about misinformation spreading on their systems.
When asked Monday if the review of CISA’s election work was complete and if the agency could share a copy of the report, an agency spokesperson said it was an internal review to “help inform how the agency moves forward to best support critical infrastructure” and was not planned for public release.
The two cybersecurity initiatives facing cuts are the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which included state and local election officials along with representatives of voting system manufacturers, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which has benefited state, local and tribal government offices.
Both have been organized within a nonprofit, the Center for Internet Security.
The activities no longer being funded include cyber threat intelligence, cyber incident response and engaging with state and local government officials. In a statement, the agency said ending the funding will help “focus CISA’s work on mission critical areas, and eliminate redundancies”.
Following CISA’s decision, the Center for Internet Security posted a notice online that it was no longer supporting the election-specific initiative. A spokesperson for the Center for Internet Security did not respond to questions sent by email about the effects of the cuts.
The National Association of Secretaries of State, comprised of top state election officials from across the country, was seeking information from CISA about the move and its recent election-specific review, said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat who is president of the bipartisan group.
Simon said he was waiting for more information before drawing conclusions. He said the group’s executive board recently sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urging CISA to continue services to state and local election officials, including support for the election information sharing center.
” We got a lot out of it”, Simon said Monday.
CISA falls under the Department of Homeland Security, although it has its own Senate-confirmed director. President Donald Trump has yet to nominate someone as CISA director. The agency was formed in 2018 during the first Trump administration and is charged with protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure, from dams and nuclear power plants to banks and voting systems.
A spokesperson for the National Association of State Election Directors said the group was hoping to learn more from the Center for Internet Security about the effect of the federal cuts on its operations.
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who served as chair of the executive committee for the election information sharing initiative, said it provided crucial support during last year’s presidential election. Election officials were reporting malicious cyberattacks and sharing important details in real time, which she said allowed Maine to preemptively block those attempting to target her state’s networks.
” We will find a way to protect our elections”, said Bellows, a Democrat. ” But given the sophistication of these threats, the elimination of the ( information sharing initiative ) is both inefficient and extremely dangerous”.
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