Trump wants to take a battle axe to CISA again and slash $707M from budget
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s budget will see yet another deep cut if Congress approves President Trump’s proposal to slash CISA’s spending by $707 million in fiscal year 2027.
America’s lead cyber-defense agency already lost millions in funding and about a third of its workforce (close to 1,000 people) during the first year of Trump’s second term. According to the president’s proposed budget [PDF], the spending plan “refocuses CISA on its core mission.”
Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget wanted to chop about $491 million from CISA’s spending, although Congress ultimately approved a reduction of about $135 million [PDF].
CISA, according to Trump’s Friday proposal, is “more focused on censorship than on protecting the Nation’s critical systems, and put them at risk due to poor management and inefficiency, as well as a focus on self-promotion.”
This same language was used in the president’s 2026 spending plan for CISA – and in messaging favored by now-ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The Department of Homeland Security oversees CISA.
Both Noem and Trump frequently criticized CISA’s efforts to counter online disinformation, especially as they relate to election security and preventing foreign trolls – and the president himself – from spreading lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen on behalf of Joe Biden.
If enacted, this would weaken the system for managing cyber risk, increasing the likelihood that preventable incidents escalate into disruptions affecting critical infrastructure and the services Americans depend on
Trump’s 2027 spending plan says it will “refocus” CISA by “removing offices that are duplicative of existing and effective programs at the State and Federal level, such as certain targeted school safety programs.”
It would also eliminate “programs focused on so-called misinformation and propaganda as well as external engagement offices such as council management, stakeholder engagement, and international affairs. These programs and offices were used as a key hub in the Censorship Industrial Complex to violate the First Amendment, target Americans for their protected speech, and target the President.”
Many of these programs, however, were already axed in the first year of Trump’s second term.
On Trump’s first day of his second term, he axed the Cyber Safety Review Board, which had been investigating how China’s Salt Typhoon hacked US government and telecommunications networks, along with all other advisory committees that reported to the Department of Homeland Security.
This action also shuttered the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council, National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, National Infrastructure Advisory Council, and the US Secret Service Cyber Investigations Advisory Board.
In March 2025, CISA cut $10 million in funding — nearly half the total budget — for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), which provides free and low-cost threat detection and response services to state and local governments.
Six months later, CISA cut its ties to – and funding for – the Center for Internet Security, a nonprofit that provides free and low-cost cybersecurity services to state and local governments.
The Register reached out to both CISA and the White House to clarify plans to cut programs that have already been eliminated. We will update this story if we receive any response.
A former CISA official who declined to be named for fear of political repercussions told us that the budget proposal “removes functions that are integral to how CISA carries out its mission.”
“Managing cyber risk to critical infrastructure requires coordination across federal agencies, [State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial] governments, private operators, and international partners,” the former official continued. “The offices targeted here enable that coordination by supporting shared awareness, early warning, and aligned response. Eliminating external engagement and international functions will further degrade that coordination.”
Trump’s proposal essentially makes Americans less safe, this former CISA official told The Register. “If enacted, this would weaken the system for managing cyber risk, increasing the likelihood that preventable incidents escalate into disruptions affecting critical infrastructure and the services Americans depend on.” ®
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