I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2844 
To establish Election Security Enhancement Units in the Cybersecurity and 
Infrastructure Agency of the Department of Homeland Security, to direct 
the Election Assistance Commission to make a grant to each State 
which certifies that it has implemented certain steps to ensure the integ-
rity of voter registration, the casting of ballots, and the tabulation 
of ballots in elections for Federal office in the State, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 26, 2021 
Mr. MCCAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To establish Election Security Enhancement Units in the 
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency of the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security, to direct the Election Assist-
ance Commission to make a grant to each State which 
certifies that it has implemented certain steps to ensure 
the integrity of voter registration, the casting of ballots, 
and the tabulation of ballots in elections for Federal 
office in the State, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Election Protection 
Act of 2021’’. 
SEC. 2. STRENGTHENING ELECTION SECURITY MEASURES. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF ELECTION SECURITY EN-
HANCEMENT UNITS
IN CYBERSECURITY
AND INFRA-
STRUCTURE AGENCY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title XXII of 
the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 651 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new section: 
‘‘SEC. 2218. ELECTION SECURITY ENHANCEMENT UNITS. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There are established in the 
Agency units to be known as Election Security Enhance-
ment Units (hereafter in this section referred to as 
‘Units’). 
‘‘(b) DUTIES.—The Units shall provide State and 
local election officials in various geographic regions of the 
United States access to risk-management, resiliency, and 
technical support services provided by election administra-
tion and cybersecurity experts who shall be based in such 
regions and who may provide such services in person, by 
telephone, or online.’’. 
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con-
tents in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act 
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of 2002 is amended by inserting after the item relat-
ing to section 2217 the following new item: 
‘‘Sec. 2218. Election Security Enhancement Units.’’. 
(b) DUTY OF SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY 
TO NOTIFY STATE AND LOCAL OFFICIALS OF THREATS 
TO SECURITY OF ELECTIONS.— 
(1) DUTY TO SHARE INFORMATION WITH DE-
PARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY.—If a Federal 
entity receives information about an incident which 
threatens the security of a Federal election, the Fed-
eral entity shall promptly share that information 
with the Department of Homeland Security, unless 
the head of the entity (or a Senate-confirmed official 
designated by the head) makes a specific determina-
tion in writing that there is good cause to withhold 
the particular information. 
(2) RESPONSE TO RECEIPT OF INFORMATION 
BY SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—Upon receiving infor-
mation about an incident under paragraph (1), 
the Secretary, in consultation with the Attorney 
General, the Director of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation, and the Director of National In-
telligence, shall promptly (but in no case later 
than 96 hours after receiving the information) 
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review the information and make a determina-
tion whether each of the following apply: 
(i) There is credible evidence that the 
incident occurred. 
(ii) There is a basis to believe that the 
incident resulted, could have resulted, or 
could result in the alteration of the results 
of the election. 
(B) DUTY TO NOTIFY STATE AND LOCAL 
OFFICIALS.— 
(i) DUTY
DESCRIBED.—If the Sec-
retary makes a determination under sub-
paragraph (A) that clauses (i) and (ii) of 
such subparagraph apply with respect to 
an incident, not later than 96 hours after 
making the determination, the Secretary 
shall provide a notification of the incident 
to each of the following: 
(I) The chief executive of the 
State involved. 
(II) The State election official of 
the State involved. 
(III) The local election official of 
the election agency involved. 
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(ii) TREATMENT OF CLASSIFIED IN-
FORMATION.— 
(I) EFFORTS
TO
AVOID
INCLU-
SION OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.— 
In preparing a notification provided 
under this paragraph to an individual 
described in subclause (I), (II), or 
(III) of clause (i), the Secretary shall 
attempt to avoid the inclusion of clas-
sified information. 
(II) PROVIDING
GUIDANCE
TO 
STATE
AND
LOCAL
OFFICIALS.—To 
the extent that a notification provided 
under this paragraph to an individual 
described in subclause (I), (II), or 
(III) of clause (i) includes classified 
information, the Secretary (in con-
sultation with the Attorney General 
and the Director of National Intel-
ligence) shall indicate in the notifica-
tion which information is classified. 
(C) EXCEPTION.— 
(i) IN GENERAL.—If the Secretary, in 
consultation with the Attorney General and 
the Director of National Intelligence, 
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makes a determination that it is not pos-
sible to provide a notification under sub-
paragraph (A) with respect to an incident 
without compromising intelligence methods 
or sources or interfering with an ongoing 
investigation, the Secretary shall not pro-
vide the notification under such paragraph. 
(ii) ONGOING
REVIEW.—Not later 
than 30 days after making a determination 
under clause (i) and every 30 days there-
after, the Secretary shall review the deter-
mination. If, after reviewing the deter-
mination, the Secretary makes a revised 
determination that it is possible to provide 
a notification under subparagraph (B) 
without compromising intelligence methods 
or sources or interfering with an ongoing 
investigation, the Secretary shall provide 
the notification under subparagraph (B) 
not later than 96 hours after making such 
revised determination. 
(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the fol-
lowing definitions apply: 
(A) ELECTION AGENCY.—The term ‘‘elec-
tion agency’’ means any component of a State, 
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or any component of a unit of local government 
in a State, which is responsible for the adminis-
tration of elections for Federal office in the 
State. 
(B) 
FEDERAL
ELECTION.—The 
term 
‘‘Federal election’’ means any election (as de-
fined in section 301(1) of the Federal Election 
Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101(1))) 
for Federal office (as defined in section 301(3) 
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 
(52 U.S.C. 30101(3))). 
(C) FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘Fed-
eral entity’’ means any agency (as defined in 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code). 
(D) LOCAL
ELECTION
OFFICIAL.—The 
term ‘‘local election official’’ means the chief 
election official of a component of a unit of 
local government of a State that is responsible 
for administering Federal elections. 
(E) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 
means the Secretary of Homeland Security. 
(F) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means 
each of the several States, the District of Co-
lumbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, 
Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of 
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Northern Mariana Islands, and the United 
States Virgin Islands. 
(G) STATE
ELECTION
OFFICIAL.—The 
term ‘‘State election official’’ means— 
(i) the chief State election official of a 
State designated under section 10 of the 
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 
(52 U.S.C. 20509); or 
(ii) in the case of Puerto Rico, Guam, 
American Samoa, the Northern Mariana 
Islands, and the United States Virgin Is-
lands, a chief State election official des-
ignated by the State for purposes of this 
Act. 
(4) EFFECTIVE
DATE.—This subsection shall 
apply with respect to information about an incident 
which threatens the security of a Federal election 
which is received on or after the date of the enact-
ment of this Act. 
SEC. 3. GRANTS TO STATES CERTIFYING INTEGRITY OF 
ELECTIONS. 
(a) GRANTS.—The Election Assistance Commission 
(hereafter referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’) shall make 
a grant to each eligible State. 
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