DHS budget request would cut CISA staff by 1,000 positions

Cybersecurity

DHS budget request would cut CISA staff by 1,000 positions

Budget documents show DHS wants to reduce CISA funding in areas like cyber training and stakeholder engagement.

Justin Doubleday@jdoubledayWFED

May 30, 2025 6:25 pm

3 min read

The Trump administration is proposing to cut more than 1,000 positions at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Under the 2026 budget request, CISA would go from approximately 3,732 funded positions today to 2,649 positions next year. The staff reductions are detailed in CISA’s fiscal 2026 budget justification, posted today. They present the most detailed view yet of the Trump administration’s proposal to cut CISA’s budget by nearly $500 million.

The proposed cuts still have to be approved by Congress as part of the 2026 appropriations process. But they come as hundreds of CISA employees have already left under the Trump administration. Meanwhile, more staff could depart through deferred resignations or early retirements offered to DHS staff in April.

The proposed cuts are spread across CISA’s various divisions. CISA’s cybersecurity division would go from 1,267 positions to 1,063 jobs. CISA’s infrastructure security division would go from about 343 positions to 325 jobs.

The budget documents attribute most of the planned cuts in the cybersecurity division to funded vacancies or personnel participating in DHS’s workforce transition program.

However, other divisions would see deeper cuts. CISA’s mission support division would go from 788 positions to 570. The integrated operations division would go from 827 jobs to 500 positions. The emergency communications division would see its workforce reduced from 104 positions to 80.

The deepest cuts would come within CISA’s risk management operations division, which would go from 179 positions to 58, and the stakeholder engagement and requirements division, which would go from 200 positions to just 53 in fiscal 2026.

In public comments, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has chalked up the planned cuts at CISA to ending the agency’s work on election security, including misinformation and disinformation. However, those cuts represent just 14 positions and approximately $40 million.

Under the proposed budget, CISA would also cut funding for Cyber Defense and Education Training by $45 million.

“CISA can direct users to free resources that already provide foundational cybersecurity programs for under-resourced industrial environments,” the documents explain. “Existing tools and processes, such as vulnerability management frameworks, further support ongoing risk mitigation efforts independent of training reductions.”

The budget would cut $54.7 million from CISA’s stakeholder engagement program by eliminating 120 positions, including council management offices, stakeholder engagement activities and offices, and international affairs external engagement offices.

“This change shifts CISA’s mission space to solely support the [sector risk management agency (SRMA)] efforts and aligns with CISA’s priorities to strengthen critical infrastructure security while optimizing operational effectiveness,” the documents state.

CISA is also planning to cut 35 positions and $70 million in funding from the National Risk Management Center by “eliminating initiative planning and coordination efforts,” the documents show.

“This change will shift NRMCs efforts to support the SRMA mission space and aligns with CISA’s priorities to strengthen critical infrastructure security while optimizing operational effectiveness,” they continue.

The budget would also eliminate funding for CISA’s bombing prevention and federal school safety programs and transition those efforts to “state and local responsibility.”

And the proposal would eliminate funding for the Chemical Security Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. Authority for the CFATS program expired in 2023 after it was blocked by now-Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.). However, CISA and other lawmakers had been continuing to press for its reauthorization last year.

The CFATs cuts would account for 224 positions and $40 million within the integrated operations division.

“Due to the sunsetting of the CFATS program and the delay in implementing the Secure Handling of Ammonium Nitrate provisions of the Homeland Security Act, the Chemical Security Inspectors (CSIs) and other field-based staff, as well as voluntary programs and initiatives such as ChemLock, will be phased out,” the documents explain.