The decision by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) that it will no longer brief the House and Senate intelligence committees on matters of election security is an abdication of its duty to inform Congress. The 2016 elections made clear that the United States is not immune to interference in its elections. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report noted the “sweeping and systematic fashion” in which Russia interfered in the 2016 election, highlighting the scope of the challenge to protect U.S. elections. With another presidential election around the corner and reports of Russian interference already underway, the urgency to get this right has never been so clear.
Ensuring that elections are secure should not be a partisan issue—and it’s just the baseline for what needs to be done. The ODNI’s decision to shift to written briefings puts significant limits on the ability of lawmakers—on both sides of the aisle—to ask questions of intelligence officials and communicate to the American people important information about the upcoming election. This decision threatens to undermine the vote and voice of every American citizen.
