Trump Homeland Security Budget Guts CISA Staff, Key Programs

A Trump administration budget plan would eliminate more than a third of staff at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and eliminate outreach programs in a proposal to reduce agency spending by roughly 17%.

CISA released Friday its fiscal year 2026 budget overview, requesting $2.38 billion – down nearly $500 million from $2.87 billion in fiscal year 2024. It proposes cuts to staffing, cyber operations, infrastructure security, chemical inspections and emergency communications.

The plan would reduce CISA cyber operations by nearly $150 million and eliminates programs including cyber defense education and training. It guts funding for the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center and drastically reduces resources for stakeholder engagement and international coordination. Election security would face a nearly $40 million cut, while funding for risk management operations would drop from $134 million to just $36 million.

Top Department of Homeland Security and CISA officials defend budget and workforce cuts although some bipartisan lawmakers and agency insiders warn the reductions could cripple CISA’s ability to counter rising threats (see: Planned CISA Cuts Face Political Delays and Growing Backlash).

“Funding reductions will make it more difficult for CISA to respond to a significant cyber incident,” said Michael Daniel, president and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance. Daniel told Information Security Media Group the cuts will cause “ripple effects in several dimensions,” including fewer threat alerts, fewer cybersecurity reviews at under-resourced critical infrastructure sites, fewer joint exercises and reduced response capabilities during major incidents.

The proposal includes an increase for the agency’s infrastructure security division, from $159 million to $303 million, but that includes a $237.8 million transfer from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office. Core programs like bombing prevention would be cut from $30.3 million to $1.9 million and chemical security from $25.9 million to $3.6 million.

The workforce reductions span nearly every CISA division, with the steepest proportional cuts hitting integrated operations and stakeholder engagement. Mission support would lose nearly 28% of its positions under the plan, shrinking internal teams responsible for information technology, human resources and procurement. The cybersecurity division would shed more than 200 roles across cyber operations, training and vulnerability management.

Risk management operations – which includes critical infrastructure analysis and simulation modeling – would see a two-thirds staff cut. The Intelligence Unit under integrated operations would be eliminated entirely, while emergency communications, election security and chemical inspections would all face steep personnel losses.