Cybersecurity Policy Report, House Bill Would Require CISA to Assess Impact of Cuts in Budget, Workforce, (Sep 21, 2026)
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would have to assess whether cuts in its workforce and budget have left it unable to fulfill its mission under a bill unveiled today by Rep. James Walkinshaw (D., Va.).
“Since President Trump took office, nearly 1,000 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) employees have been fired, sidelined, or pushed out, hollowing out roughly one-third of the nation’s leading civilian cyber defense agency,” Rep. Walkinshaw said in a news release.
“His administration has also cut critical programs and disrupted partnerships that help government and industry share information about cyber threats,” he said.
The CISA Force Structure Assessment Act (H.R. 10474, 119th Cong. (2026)) would require CISA’s director “to determine whether, after these sweeping cuts, the agency still has the personnel, training, certifications, and resources needed to protect federal networks, support state and local governments, and secure critical infrastructure,” he explained.
The assessment would be due one year after the bill’s enactment and would have to include “recommendations to address any shortage of resources or personnel or gaps in relevant training or accredited, industry-recognized certifications for existing work roles,” according to the bill’s text.
The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Delia Ramirez (D., Ill.), ranking member of the committee’s cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee.
“With Iran targeting our critical infrastructure and frontier AI models creating new cyber risks, we must ensure we have a cybersecurity workforce to counter these growing threats,” Rep. Thompson said. “After Trump has spent the past two years targeting and slashing CISA’s workforce, we need the agency to assess if it has right personnel in place to fulfill its mission. I thank Congressman Walkinshaw for introducing this necessary legislation to do exactly that.”
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