The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee voted on Monday to approve a 4.6 percent year-over-year budget cut for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for fiscal year 2026 – versus the 16 percent budget reduction that the Trump administration has been offering in its budget request to Congress last month.
According to a subcommittee fact sheet, the panel approved $2.7 billion of FY2026 funding for CISA, which is $134 million less than the FY2025 enacted level. The Trump administration has proposed a $495 million year-over-year budget cut.
The subcommittee said the funding it approved features:
- $808.6 million for the operation and improvement of cybersecurity defense technology and services for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agency networks and critical infrastructure partners;
- $758.2 million for cyber operations, including vulnerability management, capacity building, and threat hunting; and
- “strategic reductions to redundant, unauthorized, or duplicative programs.”
The budget bill also would prohibit the establishment of a “Disinformation Governance Board” – following Trump administration claims that CISA’s elections oversight targeted President Donald Trump and his supporters.
The CISA budget – contained withing a larger homeland security funding bill – was approved by the subcommittee on an 8-4 vote.
The less draconian CISA budget cut came after lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concern over losing critical cyber capabilities from Trump administration’s budget proposal.
CISA received sharp criticism from subcommittee Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Nev., at Monday’s markup session, who cited claims that “CISA strayed from the authority given to it by the Congress.”
“We have responsibly trimmed that agency’s budget by eliminated duplicative contracts and positions, consolidated election security and chemical security missions into the existing critical infrastructure security framework, defunded equity positions, and returned the focus of CISA to its core mission of protecting Federal networks, and ensuring that the days of censorship through mis, dis, and mal information efforts are over,” said the chairman in prepared opening statements.
Meanwhile, the year-over-year funding cuts also received criticism from panel Democrats, with Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ohio, saying that the FY2026 funding level “does nothing to protect Americans from growing attacks on their privacy.”
“The only people who benefit from this bill’s failure to invest here are cybercriminals in China, Russia, and around the world who will now find it easier to attack Americans,” said Rep. Underwood in prepared statements at the bill’s markup.
Despite disagreements between representatives, the bill would end up softening losses to CISA under the White House budget proposal that includes cutting nearly 30 percent of the agency’s workforce, and reducing or shutter its offices designed to coordinate risk analysis, oversee regional operations, and conduct engagement activities.
It is unclear exactly which positions would be cut, or functions would be reduced under the funding bill approved by the House panel.