{"id":180416,"date":"2026-01-21T17:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/acting-cisa-chief-defends-workforce-cuts-declares-agency-back-on-mission\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T17:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T22:25:08","slug":"acting-cisa-chief-defends-workforce-cuts-declares-agency-back-on-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/acting-cisa-chief-defends-workforce-cuts-declares-agency-back-on-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Acting CISA chief defends workforce cuts, declares agency \u2018back on mission\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acting CISA chief defends workforce cuts, declares agency \u2018back on mission\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cybersecuritydive.com\/news\/cisa-acting-director-house-hearing\/810175\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-21 17:11:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.cybersecuritydive.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency\u2019s acting leader used a hearing on Wednesday to defend the Trump administration\u2019s mass layoffs at CISA and reassure lawmakers that the agency was still prepared to defend government and critical infrastructure networks from hackers.
\n\u201cA disciplined mission requires the right workforce \u2014 not a larger one, but a more capable and skilled one,\u201d Madhu Gottumukkala said during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that featured him and two other Department of Homeland Security officials.
\nIn the coming year, Gottumukkala added, \u201cCISA will continue targeted hiring in mission critical roles while remaining aligned with [DHS\u2019s] broader efforts to control costs and maximize return.\u201d
\nFor now, though, he said, \u201cwe have the staff that we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

CISA turmoil over layoffs, transfers
\nCISA has lost more than one-third of its workforce\u00a0since President Donald Trump took office almost exactly one year ago. The Trump administration has forced out key experts, eliminated a major collaboration framework, withdrawn funding from a state and local cybersecurity group and shuttered offices that managed important partnerships with states, businesses and foreign allies.
\nAt least 998 CISA employees have quit or been laid off or transferred since the start of the Trump administration, with 65 receiving forced reassignments to other agencies, according to an internal agency report that House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., entered into the record at the end of the hearing. Thompson\u2019s office later provided the report to Cybersecurity Dive.
\nLawmakers of both parties expressed concern about the turmoil at CISA, with committee chairman Andrew Gabarino, R-N.Y., saying that \u201cworkforce continuity, clear leadership, and mission readiness are essential to effective cyber defenses.\u201d
\nDemocrats were more critical. \u201cAt a time of persistent and growing cyber threats from malign foreign actors,\u201d said Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., the cuts at CISA \u201chave weakened our defenses and left our critical systems and infrastructure more exposed and the American people more vulnerable.\u201d
\nGottumukkala repeatedly declined to answer questions about how CISA\u2019s workforce purge was affecting its ability to execute its mission. When Walkinshaw asked if CISA had conducted an analysis of its staffing needs, Gottumukkala responded that CISA\u2019s work \u201cis mission-focused, which means capability is measured by outcomes, not head count.\u201d
\nCISA\u2019s attrition rate in 2025 was lower than the government-wide average, according to Gottumukkala, hovering at around 7.5% compared with the government-wide rate of 9.25%.<\/p>\n

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., the chairman of the homeland security panel\u2019s cyber subcommittee, praised Gottumukkala over the workforce cuts. \u201cYou’re doing more with less,\u201d he said, \u201cand you’re doing it more efficiently.\u201d
\nCISA is not planning to make any more organizational changes, Gottumukkala said, and the agency will consult with Congress if that changes.
\nThe hearing, which was Gottumukkala\u2019s first appearance before Congress, gave Democrats an opportunity to press him on multiple controversies that have recently embroiled his tenure at CISA, although he largely avoided commenting on them. He refused to confirm that he had failed a polygraph test, saying he didn\u2019t \u201caccept the premise of that characterization\u201d and wouldn\u2019t discuss security clearance\u2013related matters in public. He declined to comment on a report that he had tried to oust CISA\u2019s chief information officer, citing the complexities of personnel matters. And he dodged a question about DHS\u2019s controversial plan to build a facility for discussing classified information at a South Dakota university aligned with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the state\u2019s former governor.
\nElection security concerns
\nWhen Walkinshaw asked Gottumukkala about CISA eliminating funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which forced many local governments to leave the group, Gottumukkala said none of the roughly two dozen other ISACs received federal funding, although CISA is still coordinating with all of them.
\nGottumukkala also repeatedly said that no CISA personnel had been transferred to ICE to support Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown, although Democratic lawmakers disputed that claim.
\nGottumukkala consistently defended CISA\u2019s workforce cuts by saying that the Trump administration was putting CISA \u201cback on mission\u201d by eliminating activities beyond the agency\u2019s core responsibilities.\u00a0
\n\u201cThe personnel that we have, we are making sure that they are on mission,\u201d Gottumukkala said. \u201cThe bad press \u2026 misses the point.\u201d
\nCISA\u2019s election security mission has seen the biggest changes. In 2020, CISA helped state and local officials alert social media companies to misinformation related to the election and the Covid-19 pandemic. Republicans accused CISA of conspiring with Silicon Valley to censor Americans\u2019 online speech, and the falsehood-fueled controversy turned the agency into a pariah among conservatives. After Trump took office last year, CISA froze its election security program and eliminated the entire team.
\nBut in Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Gottumukkala sought to assure lawmakers that CISA was still committed to helping states secure the upcoming midterm elections.
\n\u201cThe claim that DHS or CISA has rolled back election security protections is not accurate,\u201d Gottumukkala told Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas. \u201cWe treat election security like any other critical infrastructure sector, and our election security services remain fully in place.\u201d
\nCISA ended \u201cactivities that were outside its core mission,\u201d Gottumukkala told Rep. Dale Strong, R-Ala., including \u201cmonitoring any American’s lawful speech, any narrative management or any coordination with those social media companies on election-related posts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales urged Gottumukkala to keep CISA focused on election security, including partnering with the military\u2019s U.S. Cyber Command to neutralize foreign adversaries\u2019 attempts to interfere with American elections. \u201cThat needs to be a priority,\u201d Gonzales told Gottumukkala, who said CISA had a strong intelligence-sharing relationship with Cyber Command.
\nSeveral lawmakers asked Gottumukkala about the precarious status of the 2015 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Act, which lawmakers temporarily revived in November after it sunset on Sept. 30. \u201cIt remains one of the most important authorities for defending the U.S. critical infrastructure against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats,\u201d Gottumukkala said. The Trump administration strongly supports a long-term renewal of the law, he added. \u201cOne of the strengths of CISA is the partnership and collaboration with the private sector.\u201d
\nCIRCIA update
\nGottumukkala also briefly discussed the status of the regulation that CISA is developing pursuant to the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act. The business community objected to the Biden administration\u2019s draft rule, saying it was too broad and onerous, and the Trump administration has said that it is working closely with industry to refine the requirements.
\n\u201cWe are working very hard to make sure that we are getting towards the closure line,\u201d Gottumukkala said, adding that the agency was reviewing \u201cabout 280-plus detailed public comments.\u201d
\nThe Trump administration is keeping CISA \u201csquarely focused\u201d on the responsibilities that Congress gave it, Gottumukkala told lawmakers. In 2025, he said, CISA helped more than 4,000 cyberattack victims, published more than 1,600 security products, shared more than 2,500 threat and incident reports and triaged more than 30,000 incidents.
\n\u201cWe are prioritizing what works, eliminating duplication and ensuring that every product and service directly advances CISA\u2019s regulatory mission and aligns with the administration’s goals of efficiency, accountability and impact,\u201d Gottumukkala said.
\nOne of the few things that united Republicans and Democrats during the hearing was the recognition of CISA\u2019s importance to U.S. national security.
\n\u201cCISA [is] arguably one of the most important agencies in our government [where] most people don’t realize what’s happening,\u201d Gonzales said.
\nBut Republicans also said the newly slimmed-down agency needed to stay on track.
\n\u201cWhen [CISA\u2019s] mandate is carried out with discipline and focus, the agency earns bipartisan support in Congress and confidence from the industry,\u201d Garbarino said. \u201cWhen it does not, that confidence erodes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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