Top Democratic leaders are calling to provide the FBI and Department of Homeland Security with hefty funding boosts to expose and counter Russian election interference ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and other top Democrats urged Republican leaders to support a $300 million funding increase for the FBI in a sweeping spending bill due March 23. Schumer and Pelosi also called for additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Election Assistance Commission.
Schumer told reporters Wednesday that the additional FBI money would support counterintelligence activities like those seen Friday in special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians for interfering in the 2016 election. The DHS and EAC money, meanwhile, would be used to “beef up” state and local election infrastructure security.
“With many state and local governments strapped for cash, federal funding is all the more imperative,” Schumer said. “Outdated registration and voting systems must be replaced. Procedures must be in place to accurately count every ballot.
He added that he and other Democrats are also asking the intelligence community for a set of public and classified reports assessing Russian efforts to interfere with the 2018 election.
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar on Wednesday told reporters that $386 million should be set aside for state election-related grants.
“Several of our states don’t even have back-up paper ballots if there was a hack,” she said. “Many of our states have not updated their equipment for over 10 years, and the Russians know that.”
She proposed that funding also be used to ensure that states have a designated official with the requisite security clearance needed to view classified information. The lack of such clearances has further divided federal and local information sharing on election security threats, according to the New York Times.
Schumer would not say on Wednesday whether Democrats would withhold support for the omnibus spending bill should Republicans reject their funding request.
“We’re not drawing lines in the sand,” he said.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said last week that the intelligence community expects the Kremlin to “conduct bolder and more disruptive cyber operations” in the next year.
“The 2018 US midterm elections are a potential target for Russian influence operations,” read the threat assessment provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee. “We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople, and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States.”
