Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security over what he says is a sharp decline in federal election-security support ahead of the 2026 midterms, warning that cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency could leave states more exposed to cyber threats and foreign interference.
In a letter sent Wednesday to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Warner said state and local officials have reported that CISA is no longer providing the same level of election-security training, intelligence-sharing, and cybersecurity assistance it offered in prior election cycles.
The letter adds to growing criticism over the Trump administration’s handling of CISA and its election-security mission, which has faced deep staffing reductions enacted over the last year.
“While the states are taking valiant and expensive measures to protect their elections, it is impossible for states to independently obtain intelligence, subject-matter expertise, and real-time incident reporting, and information at the scale and speed required to protect state elections from physical and cyber threats,” Warner wrote.
After this story was published, a DHS spokesperson said that, under President Joe Biden, CISA “was focused on censorship, branding, and electioneering instead of defending America’s critical infrastructure.”
Under President Donald Trump, the spokesperson said the agency is “committed to delivering timely, actionable cyber threat intelligence, supporting federal, state, and local partners, and defending against both nation-state and criminal cyber threats.”
“CISA’s mission is ensuring state and local election officials are cognizant of and utilize the most capable and timely threat intelligence, expertise, resources they need to defend against risks, and identify critical infrastructure security needs to maintain electoral functions,” the spokesperson said.
Efforts under the Trump administration to shrink CISA and its election-security resources have strained relationships with state and local officials and have raised concerns that jurisdictions may be far less prepared to counter threats in November, officials in Michigan and Georgia said late last month.
The administration’s fiscal 2027 budget proposal would eliminate the agency’s election security program funding, including information-sharing efforts and election security advisor positions.
Warner’s letter also cited testimony delivered last week by the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, who said that foreign adversaries are expected to target the 2026 elections.
The senator asked DHS to explain what CISA is doing to warn state and local officials about malign influence campaigns and cyber threats targeting election infrastructure. He also requested records of election-related training, cybersecurity reviews, incident responses and outreach efforts that have been conducted by the agency since January 2025.
He also asked DHS whether any CISA personnel were involved in an FBI raid tied to election systems in Fulton County, Georgia — where Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was publicly seen alongside federal officials — or in her office’s seizure and testing of voting machines in Puerto Rico.
The letter comes as the future of CISA’s election-security role has become increasingly uncertain. Republican lawmakers have long criticized the agency’s election-related activities, particularly after CISA publicly pushed back on Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.
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