{"id":180440,"date":"2026-01-21T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/lawmakers-press-acting-cisa-director-on-workforce-reductions\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:40:10","slug":"lawmakers-press-acting-cisa-director-on-workforce-reductions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/lawmakers-press-acting-cisa-director-on-workforce-reductions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers press acting CISA director on workforce reductions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers press acting CISA director on workforce reductions<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/lawmakers-press-acting-cisa-director-on-workforce-reductions\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-21 18:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: federalnewsnetwork.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

Some lawmakers were frustrated with a lack of information from acting CISA director Madhu Gottumukkala on the impact of steep staffing cuts at CISA.<\/p>\n

Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED<\/p>\n

January 21, 2026 5:58 pm <\/p>\n

3 min read <\/p>\n

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency\u2019s acting director testified that CISA is \u201cgetting back on mission,\u201d but he provided few specifics after the agency lost nearly a third of its staff over the past year.
\nActing Director Madhu Gottumukkala testified in front of the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. Asked by Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) about reports of plans for a reorganization at CISA, Gottumukkala said there are no plans to reorganize the cyber agency.
\n\u201cWe do have a lot of changes in the last year, but we have not planned any organizational changes,\u201d Gottumukkala said. \u201cBut we are continuing to look at how we rescope our existing work that we have so that we can get back on our mission of protecting the critical infrastructure. And if there is any organizational changes, I will assure that we will communicate with you.\u201d
\nCISA has gone from roughly 3,400 staff at the start of last year to 2,400 employees at the end of December. Most of CISA\u2019s workforce departed as part of the Trump administration\u2019s workforce reduction programs, with many leaving government service earlier than planned due to uncertainty at the agency under the Trump administration.]]><\/p>\n

Gottumukkala is leading CISA as the Senate has yet to approve Sean Plankey to serve as director. During Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Gottumukkala declined to provide details on recent reports that he failed a polygraph exam needed to access a sensitive cyber program and that he had worked to oust CISA\u2019s chief information officer.
\nGottumukkala also said multiple times that CISA was \u201cgetting back on mission.\u201d But he said little about what the agency was doing differently with markedly less staff.
\n\u201cThe way we are supporting back on mission is to make sure that we are protecting our critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats, and our divisions are properly equipped, and we are making sure that we are aligning our existing resources,\u201d he said.
\nAsked by Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) about potential vacancies at CISA after the mass wave of departures, Gottumukkala said, \u201cwe have the required staff that is supporting the mission we do.\u201d
\nThompson said that was contrary to a November memo CISA shared with the committee. Lawmakers are advancing a homeland security spending bill that would provide CISA with funding to fill some \u201ccritical\u201d positions. It would also stipulate that CISA \u201cnot reduce staffing in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to effectively carry out its statutory missions.\u201d
\nGottumukkala was also asked by Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) how many cyber intrusions CISA expects from foreign adversaries as part of the 2026 midterm elections.
\n\u201cWe look at it as incident by incident, and we look at what the risks are. I don\u2019t have a specific number in mind,\u201d Gottumukkala said.]]><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we should have that number,\u201d Gonzales shot back. \u201cIt should first start by how many intrusions that we had last midterm and the midterm before that. I don\u2019t want to wait. I don\u2019t want us waiting until after the fact to be able to go, \u2018Yeah, we got it wrong, and it turns out our adversaries influenced our election to that point.\u2019\u201d
\nCISA\u2019s budget request for fiscal 2026 would eliminate its election security program. But the appropriations agreement released this week would continue funding CISA\u2019s election security work.
\nRep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.) pressed Gottumukkala on whether CISA had analyzed if it could meet its mission with current staffing levels.
\n\u201cThe work that we do is mission focused, which means capability is measured by outcomes, not headcount,\u201d Gottumukkala said.
\nWalkinshaw also asked about threats to state and local governments after CISA pulled funding for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center in September. But Gottumukkala didn\u2019t address the question head on, frustrating the Virginia lawmaker.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve managed to answer none of my questions. You haven\u2019t answered a single question. But thank you for coming,\u201d Walkinshaw said.
\n Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers press acting CISA director on workforce reductions https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/cybersecurity\/2026\/01\/lawmakers-press-acting-cisa-director-on-workforce-reductions\/ Publish Date: 2026-01-21 18:00:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":180441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/federalnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/CISA.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-180440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180442,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180440\/revisions\/180442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}