Liberal Forum

GOP Seeks to Close Federal Election Agency

WASHINGTON—House Republicans are seeking to defund the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the sole federal agency that exclusively works to ensure the voting process is secure, as part of proposed federal budget cuts.

The defunding move comes as the EAC is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to examine an attack late last year on the agency’s computer systems by a Russian-speaking hacker.

Top State Department cyber official to exit, leaving myriad questions.

STATE DEPARTMENT LOSES TOP CYBER OFFICIAL — The global cybersecurity community is still struggling to process the news that Christopher Painter, the Trump administration’s top cyber diplomat, will leave his State Department job at the end of the month, as Eric first reported on Monday.

Painter, the coordinator for cyber issues at State, has been leading American delegations to international cyber meetings since 2011, negotiating joint agreements with other countries on issues like protecting critical infrastructure and developing cyber norms.

“Chris has been a tireless defender of American interests in cyberspace,” Jason Healey, a senior cyber researcher at Columbia University, told MC, “flying hundreds of thousands of miles a year to push our views of freedom online, conduct countless bilateral meetings with allies and friends and [champion] international engagement in multilateral settings.”

“The U.S. government didn’t have many like Chris,” Healey said, “and his departure will be a major loss.”

Painter previously served in top cyber roles at the National Security Council, the FBI and the Justice Department.

He may return to DOJ, where he is technically an employee on detail to State.

DOJ did not respond to a request for comment on his status.

“Chris will be hard to replace,” said James Lewis, a cyber expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This will be an easy one to mess up.” Michael Sulmeyer, a former senior Pentagon cyber policy official, told MC that Painter accumulated invaluable experience in his previous jobs.

“You weren’t just ‘working with State,’” he said of interagency meetings with Painter.

“He and his colleagues understood the broader concerns and priorities of everyone else in the room.”

WHAT’S NEXT AT STATE: Painter’s departure may complicate the State Department’s task of delivering an international cyber strategy to President Donald Trump by late September as part of his cyber executive order.

Tim Maurer, co-director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the tight deadline made appointing a successor “an important and urgent task.”

More generally, he said, the world needs U.S. cyber leadership: “The security environment continues to deteriorate while geopolitical tensions remain high and diplomatic efforts to tackle cyber threats are stalling or making only slow progress.”

A State Department official said the agency “will continue to address and prioritize these important cyber issues.”

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is considering closing the cyber office or merging it with another office and downgrading the cyber coordinator’s rank, according to a source familiar with internal planning.

“It’s a step back from everything done over the last ten years,” said the source, who added that Tillerson was also considering “limiting the number of people who work on cybersecurity” at State.

“They basically gave [Painter] two weeks notice,” the source told MC.

“It’s clear they’re thinking about reorganizing it. … Clearly they don’t think it’s that important.”