The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) would lose more than 1,000 employees under the Trump administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget proposal – totaling about 29 percent of the agency’s current workforce – new White House documents show.
The proposed cuts to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) cybersecurity arm workforce were detailed in a new budget justification document out today that further explains the impact of the White House’s initial budget proposal published in early May and featuring a proposed 17 percent funding cut – totaling $420 million – for CISA in FY2026.
Out of 3,732 full time CISA employees included in the FY2025 budget, 1,083 of them would be cut under the FY2026 proposal, leaving 2,649 employees in place if Congress ends up approving the proposal as part of its FY2026 budget process.
The proposed cuts would eliminate hundreds of currently funded vacancies, according to the document. They also would eliminate 61 positions under the Infrastructure Security Division Program, which would instead assign state and local government responsibilities previously overseen by CISA under the program.
The White House also proposes to eliminate 116 employees under the Mission Support Enterprise Services division while shuttering its Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.
The proposal also would get rid of 19 positions at CISA’s National Risk Management Center (NRMC) – which coordinates risk analysis to reduce threats to critical infrastructure – by removing its “initiative planning and coordination efforts.” It would cut 59 positions under CISA’s Regional Operations budget line; and eliminate 178 positions under the Chemical Security Anti-Terrorism Standards program.
The White House also proposed that the agency’s Stakeholder Engagement and Requirements operation close down its Council Management offices, Stakeholder Engagement activities and offices, and International Affairs external engagement offices to refocus CISA on critical infrastructure security.
CISA’s election security office also would be shuttered under the proposal, eliminating all 14 positions within the office. The Trump administration earlier this year claimed that CISA’s elections oversight operations targeted President Donald Trump by helping to conspire “against the First Amendment rights of President Trump and his supporters.”
“CISA, under the last administration, got involved in being somewhat of the role of the ministry of truth,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a Congressional hearing last month. “They were defining what was misinformation, disinformation … and deciding what was truth and what wasn’t truth.”
The election security office and those associated positions have already been terminated.
The Trump administration reportedly said that it intended to slash CISA’s workforce by nearly 40 percent, with Noem also sending a letter to department employees urging them to quit their jobs.
It remains unclear whether proposed headcounts cuts for FY2026 factor in those employees who have already left the agency under the administration’s deferred resignation program or similar programs.
Beyond workforce reductions, the new budget document proposes a $45 million funding cut to CISA’s Cyber Defense Education and Training functions; a $70 million funding reduction for the NRMC, a $132 million reduction to Mission Support Enterprise Services, and a $14 million cut from the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative program which connects public and private partners to coordinate defenses for critical infrastructure.
Though the latest numbers show less reductions compared to the initial “skinny budget” plan released last month, the FY2026 budget request – if enacted by Congress – would mark the first time CISA has seen a year-over-year budget decrease since it was established in 2018.
Priorities for CISA in FY2026 listed under the budget justification include some positive indications for the agency’s security programs used by other Federal agencies.
The priorities include plans to advance zero trust, expand identity and network security tools, and enhance visibility across agency systems by integrating cloud, Internet of Things, and endpoint detection and response data into centralized dashboards – a core function of CISA’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program – and extending support to smaller Federal agencies.
In other cybersecurity-centric news , the White House’s detailed budget supplement released by the Office of Management and Budget on May 30 shows the Department of Energy’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) – which is responsible for defending U.S. energy infrastructure from cyber threats – is slated for a 19 percent budget reduction in FY2026, to $179 million. That reduction would come with a 30 percent workforce cut, bringing CESER from 96 employees in FY2025 to just 66 in the new fiscal year.
The Office of the National Cyber Director, which oversees coordinated cyber strategies across the Federal government, would is slated for a $2 million budget cut in FY2026 while maintaining all of its employees.
Cyber defense funding cuts at CISA have sparked bipartisan concerns in Congress, with lawmakers questioning the administration’s motives and justification for the steep cuts.
“Given the growing cybersecurity threat landscape and the administration’s stated interest which they have in addressing these threats, I’m concerned that reducing system staff will help will not help CISA accomplish the mission of providing cybersecurity to the people that need it,” Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, told Noem at a recent congressional hearing.