Acting Director Says Agency Has Stabilized After Major Staff Losses Throughout 2025
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency “is trying to get back on its mission” after a year marked by major staffing shakeups, prolonged funding disruptions and cuts that strained federal defenders as foreign cyberthreats intensified, the agency’s acting director told lawmakers Wednesday.
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Acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala told the House Homeland Security Committee that CISA has stabilized following a turbulent year and does not anticipate any further organizational changes in fiscal 2026. Gottumukkala said CISA currently employs more than 2,400 personnel and now has the “required workforce” needed to carry out its statutory mission, he asserted. That number is roughly a thousand fewer employees than it had at the start of the Trump administration.
Gottumukkala said cuts to the agency were intended to ensure the agency is aligned with the administration’s push to cut the size of the federal government.
The acting director defended the White House approach to slashing the federal government, saying the agency has worked to “right-size and rebalance its workforce” after losing nearly a third of its staff during the first year of the administration. He added that the agency will launch “targeted initiatives” in 2026 “designed to close the most pressing risk gaps” facing critical infrastructure and federal networks.
“We are prioritizing what works from previous lessons learned, eliminating duplication and ensuring every new service or product we release directly advances CISA’s statutory mission and responsibilities,” Gottumukkala said.
Republican lawmakers argued that a narrower, more technically focused CISA is better positioned to deliver measurable security outcomes. CISA’s “mandate is operational,” said committee Chair Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y. “And when that mandate is carried out with discipline and focus, the agency earns bipartisan support in Congress and confidence from the industry. When it does not, that confidence erodes.”
While the hearing was aimed at focusing on oversight of Department of Homeland Security technology components, Democrats expressed frustration that senior leadership from Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not present at the hearing. They argued that excluding ICE limited Congress’ ability to assess how budget and policy shifts are affecting the department as a whole.
Funding for DHS for fiscal year 2026 could become contentious in the coming weeks as House Republicans move to hold a separate vote on the Homeland Security spending package rather than bundling it with a broader omnibus bill – a strategy that may intensify partisan divisions surrounding ICE on Capitol Hill. Axios reported Wednesday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., opposes the homeland security funding bill.
Congress has until Jan. 30 to pass its government spending measures before entering another government shutdown (see: No Vote, No Leader: CISA Faces 2026 Without a Director).
The hearing comes as lawmakers introduced a proposed fiscal 2026 funding package that would reduce CISA’s topline budget to roughly $2.6 billion, nearly $268 million below the prior year. The bill would cut $17.5 million from threat hunting, $22.2 million from vulnerability management and further reduce funding for cyber analytics programs, while largely preserving election security operations and regional field offices (see: Congress Proposes Steep Cuts to CISA).
Democrats warned that reductions across civilian cyber programs would erode the gains made after a series of high-profile breaches and ransomware incidents over the past decade. Experts have also warned the reductions come as foreign threat actors continue to probe U.S. government systems at scale, often exploiting long-standing vulnerabilities and resource gaps.