Lawmakers grill Noem over CISA funding cuts, demand Trump cyber plan

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced tough questioning on Tuesday from members of both parties in Congress about a recent budget proposal that would slash $491 million from the department’s cybersecurity agency. 

Noem appeared before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee to discuss DHS funding across its multiple agencies, but Republicans and Democrats made time to demand more information explaining the Trump administration’s fiscal plans for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Noem repeated much of what she said at the RSA Conference last week, defending the proposed cuts to CISA as a “refocusing” of the agency’s efforts toward core cybersecurity programs and away from fighting the prolific disinformation and misinformation campaigns currently being launched digitally by Russia, China and Iran. 

Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), ranking member on the subcommittee, said any cuts to CISA programs detract from the nation’s cyberdefenses, “letting Russia, China, and Iran steal our top secrets and Americans’ personal data.”

The proposed $491 million reduction in spending would apply to fiscal 2026. For the current fiscal year, Noem recently cut $10 million designated for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) and the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EI-ISAC) — two organizations that provide technical assistance and guidance to states on a variety of cyberthreats. DHS also canceled grants Congress allocated for states, universities and nonprofits — some of which involve cyber protections.

Underwood said those cuts were “unacceptable and unconstitutional.” The Democrat also asked for information on how the administration plans to address intrusions into U.S. networks by Chinese state-backed operations such as Salt Typhoon.

“Last week [at the RSA conference], you said we should quote ‘just wait for the president's grand cyber plan,’ but you have not waited to erode the department's cyberdefense capabilities by removing resources and personnel and other components. Meanwhile, bad actors are burrowing further into the critical infrastructure of this country,” she said.

Underwood pressed Noem for a date when Congress can expect to see President Donald Trump’s cyber plan, but the Homeland Security secretary would only say that it is “coming shortly.”

Noem said the plan was “the president’s prerogative” but explained that she is advising him on what it should look like.

The secretary repeated her statements from the RSA Conference, saying she was alarmed that CISA did not have more information on China’s Salt and Volt Typhoon hacking campaigns targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. 

Underwood questioned why Noem would cut CISA’s budget by nearly $500 million if she was concerned about the Chinese cyberattacks — a question Noem did not answer.  

Republicans seek answers, too

CISA’s budget surfaced numerous times in questions from both parties. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) mentioned that CISA held a briefing in his district last year and in March for farmers and ranchers on how to protect agricultural businesses from cyberattacks. Newhouse said the briefing was “well-received” and urged Noem to continue the program.  

The hearing ended with subcommittee Chairman Mark Amodei (R-NV) asking Noem for more clarification on what cuts she planned to make to CISA and why. 

He noted that House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and others have raised alarms about the cuts to CISA, which have included staffing and funding reductions on top of the newly proposed $500 million budget cut.

Between the retirements, firings and the new budget, Congress deserved answers for what is being done to CISA, Amodei said. 

“What is the plan? You've been there long enough so you know when somebody goes, ‘Hey, you guys are presiding over cutting a half billion dollars in CISA to do other stuff. What was that based on?’” he said, noting that members of Congress will need more information in order to defend the cuts. 

“We need some building blocks for whoever the CISA people are. What's the plan for us to be kicking China's butt and how we’ll still be OK on that civilian sector stuff? We need solid ground for that kind of stuff.”

Underwood, at one point, questioned the Trump administration’s overall priorities.

“You've designated the Army's 250th birthday parade in Washington, D.C., on June 14 as a national special security event, meaning DHS will use taxpayer funding to help with enhanced security and support. June 14 is President Trump's 79th birthday,” Underwood said. “At the same time this administration is canceling critical cybersecurity and disaster recovery funding under this guise of so called waste and abuse.”