Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding “immediate” hearings on cyber vulnerabilities in U.S. election infrastructure, amid sustained concerns about the prospect of Russian meddling in future elections.

The lawmakers wrote to Chairman Bob Goodlatte Robert (Bob) William GoodlatteNo documents? Hoping for legalization? Be wary of Joe Biden Press: Trump's final presidential pardon: himself USCIS chief Cuccinelli blames Paul Ryan for immigration inaction MORE (R-Va.) on Thursday asking him to call leaders of the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State before the committee to explain what steps the Trump administration “may or may not be taking to ensure the integrity of our state and federal elections.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“We believe the threat is urgent,” wrote the Democrats, led by ranking member Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). “We cannot afford to ignore the mounting evidence of a coordinated effort to undermine the most basic and essential aspects of democratic process.”

The letter cited an interview with top Homeland Security cyber official Jeanette Manfra published by NBC News on Wednesday, in which she acknowledged that Russian hackers successfully penetrated a small number of voter registration databases ahead of the 2016 elections. It had already been reported that Moscow hacked into voter rolls in Arizona and Illinois.

Officials in Arizona took the state database offline for several days after discovering hackers had delivered malware to a county election official's computer, but maintain the actual database was never breached.

The letter also pointed to recent statements by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne TillersonGary Cohn: 'I haven't made up my mind' on vote for president in November Kushner says 'Alice in Wonderland' describes Trump presidency: Woodward book Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE and CIA Director Mike Pompeo Michael (Mike) Richard PompeoHouse panel halts contempt proceedings against Pompeo after documents turned over Outgoing ambassador to China slams Beijing over coronavirus: 'Could have been contained in Wuhan' Hillicon Valley: FBI chief says Russia is trying to interfere in election to undermine Biden | Treasury Dept. sanctions Iranian government-backed hackers MORE that Moscow is likely to meddle in future U.S. elections.

The Democratic lawmakers also accused the Justice Department of taking little “if any” steps to secure election systems, citing previous testimony from Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE that the U.S. is not in the position it needs to be in to stop future Russian interference.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has told lawmakers that the bureau is looking to “get in front” of the threat going forward. Wray has set up a “foreign influence task force” within the bureau to monitor the issue and agents are engaging with other federal officials as well as international partners to understand and disrupt meddling efforts.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security is providing cyber vulnerability testing and other services to state officials that request help in securing their voting infrastructure, as part of the department’s decision to designate election infrastructure as “critical” one year ago.

The department has confirmed that Russia targeted election-related systems in 21 states leading up to the election. Most of the targeting involved preparations for hacking, such as probing for vulnerabilities. None of the systems targeted were involved in vote tabulations.

This post was updated at 2:15 p.m.