Cybersecurity Policy Report, Administration’s Cyber Cuts Endanger U.S., Homeland Security Democrats Say, (Aug 19, 2025)
Reductions in personnel and spending at federal agencies under President Trump have left the U.S. more vulnerable to cyber attacks by foreign adversaries, according to a report published yesterday by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
“Mass firings of federal employees have hollowed out key national security and cybersecurity components, such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, responsible for identifying security vulnerabilities and investigating the recent China-backed Salt Typhoon hack,” the report says.
Titled “Undermining Constitutional Limits: The Trump Administration’s Unlawful Seizure of Congressional Powers, Defiance of Court Orders, and Intimidation Campaign,” the report asserts that President Trump and his administration “have seized key congressional powers, defied federal court orders, and violated Americans’ constitutional rights.”
“Not only does the Trump Administration’s seizure of Congressional powers directly threaten foundational principles of our government, its actions carry far reaching consequences on our national security, health security, and emergency preparedness,” Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.), the committee’s ranking member, said in a news release.
Another shortcoming, the report says, is the administration’s failure to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act of 2024, which should have ended TikTok’s ability to deliver its service in the U.S. as of last Jan. 19.
Instead, President Trump ordered the Department of Justice to ignore the law while TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd., attempts to find a qualified buyer for TikTok’s U.S. operations (CPR, July 7).
“The Trump administration still has not complied with a law Congress enacted last year banning support of ‘TikTok’ in the U.S. unless it was sold to an American company, despite the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of this law,” the report notes.
“Notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Department of Justice wrote letters to several tech companies that ‘an abrupt shutdown of the TikTok platform would interfere with the execution of the President’s constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs of the United States’ and it would ‘irrevocably relinquish[ ] any claims the United States might have had against [the tech companies] for the conduct proscribed in the Act,’” it says.
“Such claims appear to not only violate the law passed by Congress,” it adds, “but also raise concerns about the separation of powers.”
News: FederalLegislation DataSecurity