Democrats Ask GAO to Probe CISA's One-Third Staff Cut

The letter, led by Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, asks GAO to assess what the loss of institutional knowledge means for the agency's mission. Nearly 1,000 employees have been fired or have quit since January. State and local officials, the letter notes, are already reporting "reduced responsiveness and support," with one senator hearing that "staffing turbulence at CISA has disrupted its service delivery and operations."

That's the operational reality. The policy picture is harder to parse. Acting director Nick Andersen has said he plans to hire 300 employees to fill gaps left by the departures. DHS has said it created a plan to rebuild CISA over the next year. But the administration's own FY2027 budget proposal tells a different story: it would eliminate nearly 900 additional positions and cut more than $700 million from the agency. The Democrats' letter flags this directly, noting the confusion over which direction the administration actually intends to move.

The leadership vacuum compounds the uncertainty. CISA hasn't had a Senate-confirmed director since Jen Easterly departed at the close of the Biden administration. Andersen is the third person to hold the acting director role this year, taking over after Madhu Gottumukkala was removed in February. Recorded Future News reported in June that senior Palantir official Shyam Sankar is a leading contender for the permanent role. In the meantime, the agency is operating without a confirmed chief while being asked to defend critical infrastructure against what federal agencies this week called an "active threat" using AI-generated exploit scripts.