Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers today that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is “back on mission,” amid concerns voiced by House and Senate members on both sides of the aisle about the Trump administration’s rationale for proposed cuts to CISA’s budget for fiscal year 2026.
Testifying at a Senate Homeland Security Appropriations hearing on Thursday, Noem told panel members that the cybersecurity arm of DHS is back on track after eliminating election-focused entities within the agency which she had previously were detracting from the agency’s core mission.
“CISA, under the last administration, got involved in being somewhat of the role of the ministry of truth,” said Noem in response to a question from Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who asked for specifics about the secretary’s plan for the agency. “They were defining what was misinformation, disinformation … and deciding what was truth and what wasn’t truth.”
“We have eliminated those functions within CISA,” Noem said, referring to the reported terminations of employees under the election security group within the agency.
While CISA doesn’t have any offices specifically focused on combating misinformation and propaganda, it has been responsible for supporting state and local election security systems – activities that were halted and cut off from funding by the Trump administration in March.
The White House’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026, released last week, suggested that CISA’s elections oversight targeted President Donald Trump by helping to conspire “against the First Amendment rights of President Trump and his supporters.”
Noem added that while CISA is now back to its core mission it still has “silos to break down” between intelligence agencies. “We still have communication systems that have to be built so we can share information,” said Noem about increasing cybersecurity information sharing between the public and private sectors.
Noem’s statements follow legislators’ expressed concern this week over the administration’s “skinny budget” proposal which slated CISA for a budget cut of $491 million in FY2026. If enacted, it would be the first time CISA has seen a budget decrease from the prior year since it was established in 2018.
“You cannot claim to be refocusing on core missions like enhancing the security and resilience of critical infrastructure while also eliminating election security support and staff,” said Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., ranking member of the House Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Homeland Security, while speaking at a separate hearing held Thursday to assess CISA.
The congresswoman’s comments came in response to the administration’s efforts to refocus CISA and follow statements from Noem voicing her support for significant cuts at the agency, saying that it needed to be “more effective, smaller, [and] more nimble.”
The Trump administration has reportedly said that it plans to slash CISA’s workforce by nearly 40 percent, with Noem also sending a letter to department employees urging them to quit their jobs.
“This is all happening at a time when national security and cybersecurity experts have urged greater investments in cyber defense and offense, particularly as cybercrime proliferates, and China and Russia have sought to interfere with our economy, our elections, our health care systems and our security,” said Rep. Underwood. “Our adversaries are upping their game every day, growing significantly, while this budget would take us backwards.”
During another House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee on Tuesday, Chairman Mark Amodei, R-Nev., pressed Noem on justifications for the budget cuts.
“When someone goes, ‘hey, you guys presided over cutting a half a billion dollars in CISA to do other stuff,’ what was that based on?” said Rep. Amodei. “We don’t want to be in the position – and won’t be in the position of, ‘well I don’t know that’s what they said they needed.’”
While speaking at Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Underwood asked Noem when the Trump administration’s “cyber plan” would be released.
Noem told panel members that the plan would be “coming out shortly” and that she has “been advising [Trump] on what that will look like.”
Other lawmakers – including top Republicans – have spoken out with concern about cuts at CISA, while also agreeing that the agency needs to get back on track, and noting the risk that significant cuts could pose to the nation’s security stance.
Proposed budget cuts at CISA come as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., warned Noem that DHS “will be broke by July,” from increased spending on immigration and deportation efforts. He added that “this obsession with spending at the border … has left the country unprotected elsewhere,” and that funding redirections toward the border has “illegally gutted spending for cybersecurity.”
“As we speak, Russian and Chinese hackers are having a field day attacking our nation,” Sen. Murphy told Noem.