"I am gravely concerned about the lack of critical federal support to state and localities ahead of the 2026 midterms," Sen. Mark Warner wrote.
Sen. Mark Warner's records request to DHS and CISA
Sen. Mark Warner, D‑Va., the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter Wednesday to newly confirmed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seeking detailed information about CISA's present election security posture. Warner requested staffing breakdowns for employees currently assigned to election security work, lists of election security assistance requests submitted by states, details about trainings and tabletop exercises conducted since January 2025, and copies of an internal CISA election security review the agency has not made public.
Allegations of workforce cuts and halted programs at CISA
In the letter, Warner accused the Trump administration of undermining years of trust-building between federal agencies and state election officials by firing large portions of CISA's workforce and halting election security work earlier this year. He connected those workforce actions to a broader concern that states are losing access to federal cyber defense and threat intelligence capabilities that Warner described as impossible for states to replicate at scale and speed.
The White House budget proposal and the elimination of CISA's election security mission
Warner highlighted that the White House budget request for the coming fiscal year would completely eliminate election security as a CISA mission. He pressed DHS to explain how the administration plans to secure elections while proposing to remove the agency's election security budget — a tension at the center of his letter.
CISA's leadership, posture, and operational consequences
The senator's inquiry arrives amid mounting questions about CISA itself. The agency has operated since the start of the second Trump presidency without a Senate‑confirmed director and, according to reporting cited in Warner's letter, has faced steep reductions to both its workforce and operational mission. Current and former officials have warned that those changes have pushed CISA into a far more reactive cyber defense posture.
How state and local election officials, CISA/DHS, and Congress are affected
- State and local election officials: Warner argues they are absorbing "valiant and expensive measures" on their own while losing access to federal intelligence, subject‑matter expertise, and real‑time incident reporting that CISA historically provided.
- CISA and DHS leadership: The agency faces scrutiny over staffing, the status of training and exercises since January 2025, and an internal election security review that has not been released publicly; Warner's letter demands disclosure to clarify current capabilities.
- Congress and oversight: As ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Warner is using records requests to force accountability on how the administration's personnel moves and budget proposal will affect election security ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Warner's letter frames a concrete accountability exercise: it seeks documentary evidence — not only public statements — about how many personnel remain on election security work at CISA, what assistance states have requested, and what preparedness activities have taken place since January 2025. He linked those documentary requests to a policy question about a proposed budget that would remove election security from CISA's mission.
The administration's response to Warner's requests and the fate of the unpublicized internal CISA review will determine whether oversight yields new disclosures about capability gaps ahead of the 2026 midterms. For now, the public record in Warner's letter ties three specific facts together: a senator's formal demand for records; allegations of large workforce cuts and halted election security work earlier this year; and a White House budget proposal to eliminate election security as a CISA mission — all occurring as CISA operates without a Senate‑confirmed director and, according to officials cited, has become more reactive in cyber defense.
Source: GovInfoSecurity — US Senator Presses CISA on Election Security Rollbacks
