The fiscal 2023 budget plan President Biden released Monday would allocate billions of dollars in election security grants and nearly double the budget for the Election Assistance Commission, which administers such grants.
White House budget proposals do not define future spending but rather serve as a reflection of the administration’s values. With election reform bills stalled in Congress, Biden is now pushing to invest in election administration and security through the agency designed to provide resources to the states.
The EAC, which was created in 2002 under the Help America Vote Act, provides voluntary guidance to states on how to follow the limited election administration requirements established by federal law. It also certifies election equipment and administers election-related grants.
Biden’s budget calls for $10 billion in election security grants, to be allocated over a 10-year period “to support critical state and local election infrastructure.”
The money can be spent on HAVA-related programs “such as upgrades to registration databases, voting systems, and physical structures; support recruitment, training, and retention of election workers; improve physical and cyber security; and improve voters' access to reliable elections.”
In early December, conservative think tanks wrote to congressional leaders requesting significant investment in election security at the state and local levels. And later that month, 14 state election officials called on the administration to spend $20 billion over 10 years for election equipment, training, security and facilities.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life had echoed that funding request, and while its leaders still believe more is needed, they celebrated Biden’s proposal.
“Our recent polling shows bipartisan support for federal funding for local election officials. President Biden is showing leadership and making the case that we must invest in state and local election departments. He’s right and Congress should follow suit,” said Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director of CTCL.
Congress has appropriated funds for HAVA spending three times previously: $380 million in 2018 and $425 million in 2020, but just $75 million this year.
In addition, the Biden budget would establish $250 million in election innovation grants. State and local governments would compete for the money, to be spent on projects that improve the administration of federal elections.
“Eligible uses of funding will include capital investment to accelerate modernization of secure voting systems, efforts to expand voter access, including vote-by-mail, voter education, language proficiency, usability, voter technology, and other initiatives to enhance and secure administration of Federal elections that do not meaningfully impair access,” according to the budget proposal.
Biden proposed nearly doubling the EAC budget, from $16 million to $30 million. That includes increased compensation for full-time personnel from $5 million to $8 million.
Election administration and security have been major issues at the heart of the ongoing politicization of the 2020 election. Republicans continue to claim Donald Trump was robbed of a second term by people committing election crimes (even though there is no evidence of widespread fraud) and Democrats argue that GOP legislators are attempting to stifle voting rights of minority voters heading into the 2022 midterm elections.
The president is also asking Congress to provide a 15 percent increase for the Federal Election Commission. While the FEC is responsible for enforcing federal election laws (among other tasks), it rarely takes action thanks to the polarization among its commissioners.
The White House, through its agencies, spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to promote and defend democracy abroad. Biden has requested keeping those expenditure lines — the Democracy Fund ($290 million) and the National Endowment for Democracy ($300 million) — flat next year.
A bipartisan bill has been proposed in the House of Representatives to establish similar funding for grants to improve democracy at home. The Building Civic Bridges Act would task AmeriCorps with administering grants to increase civic engagement and decrease polarization.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."