CISA Gutted, Now Politicians Promise to Rebuild It

More than 1,000 people walked out of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency since January 2025. That's roughly one-third of its workforce, gone. Now the same Washington machine that let it happen is promising to fix it, and the people who run the water plants and power grids are supposed to wait patiently while committee chairs find their gavels.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss), expected to retake the House Homeland Security Committee after Democrats won both chambers, called this "a pivotal time for CISA" as the agency hires several hundred staff. Several hundred in. More than 1,000 out. The math doesn't need a footnote.

Who Has the Power

The decisions that hollowed out CISA were made far above the people who depend on it. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), expected to chair the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, says the Trump-Vance Administration "has undermined our security on these fronts, including by diverting resources away from combatting fentanyl trafficking and gutting CISA." Her answer is to "reverse these cuts" and "put public safety first" once her party holds the committee seat.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the expected incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wants to reauthorize the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which expires again in December after a short-term extension tucked into a continuing resolution. Nearly three dozen industry groups are lobbying for a long-term extension. Warner also named funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center as a top priority. The Department of Homeland Security let that funding expire last year.

Then comes the part where Warner muses about offense. "We cannot simply be content to play defense when adversaries attack our nation's civilian infrastructure; we must also be able to punch back," he said, adding that how to do it in a way "consistent with our country's principles and values is something I plan to explore." The Trump administration's signature cyber policy so far, per the base reporting, has been to enlist the private sector to conduct targeted offensive cyber operations against foreign criminal hacking groups. Hand the keys to private contractors, then hold hearings.

Who Gets Crushed

Thompson's own list shows where the pain lands. He wants to extend the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program to support under-resourced sectors, "especially water utilities." Under-resourced is the polite word. Warner says U.S. critical infrastructure, power and water included, "remains deeply vulnerable," pointing to the Salt Typhoon, Colonial Pipeline and Change Healthcare hacks that affected millions of Americans. Those millions weren't consulted on anyone's staffing plan.

AI sits at the center of every statement. Thompson says AI "will also accelerate the consequences of deferred investments in security." Deferred investments. Somebody deferred them, and somebody else absorbed the consequences.

The Reform Trap

Tonya Ugoretz, a cybersecurity leader at PwC and a former senior cyber official at the FBI, told Federal News Network that cybersecurity is "demanding attention in a way that it hasn't previously because of the impacts of AI." She added, "I wouldn't chalk that up solely to the outcome of the election." Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have expressed interest in examining the agencies involved, she said. Both sides, same machinery.

The next big piece arrives early next year. The Trump administration is expected to release final rules requiring critical infrastructure organizations to report cyber incidents to CISA within 72 hours. CISA sent the final CIRCIA rule to the White House for review earlier this fall. A rule written in one office, reviewed in another, enforced on operators who never got a vote.

The pattern holds across every quote in the base reporting. An agency gets cut, private firms get deputized, a new committee chair promises to restore what the last one allowed to rot, and the water utility with a skeleton IT crew keeps waiting for the grant.