House Democrats are creating an election security task force to study how the government can lock Russian hackers out of the 2018 elections, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. The task force will hold hearings, collect data on state-level election hacks, and interview election officials and cybersecurity experts. Ultimately, the group aims to turn its findings into legislation. “Unless we act, they will do this again,” Pelosi said. House Homeland Security ranking member Bennie Thompson of Mississippi will lead the task force with Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees federal elections.
Thompson said the Trump administration’s failure to present a plan to secure the upcoming election against Russia’s cyber warriors forced the Democrats’ hand.
“Basically this task force is the only option available to us right now,” the Mississippi lawmaker told reporters Thursday. “It’s not proper for the leadership in the White House to sit and try and blame President [Barack] Obama for not doing something, and here we are the later part of June — going into the Fourth of July recess— and there’s nothing definitive from the White House addressing this.”
Full Article: House Democrats launch election security task force – POLITICO.