Warner warns of CISA cuts, staffing gaps in letter to acting chief

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) on Tuesday sent Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Acting Director Nick Andersen a letter expressing alarm over widespread cuts at the agency, short-staffed regional divisions and the disbanding of an information sharing and analysis center that supports state and local critical infrastructure operators. Last week, Warner introduced legislation known as the Guaranteeing Universal Access to Cybersecurity Act , which would fund the information sharing and analysis center, the MS-ISAC, after former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem stopped paying for the program and blocked federal grant funding from being used by state local governments to participate. Warner on Tuesday also wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, underscoring that DHS must prioritize CISA and pay for the MS-ISAC. Additionally, he sent missives to all 50 governors outlining the risks he believes critical infrastructure in their states face as a result of the carving up of agency. This administration has cut about one-third of CISA’s staff with many of those laid off workers coming from the ranks of CISA’s senior staff. The above facts plus a cut of more than $700 million in CISA’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget “demonstrates a dangerous underestimation of the threats facing our nation,” the letter said. Warner told Andersen that governors, mayors, city and county executives, state chief information officers, school district leaders and education advocates, law enforcement, and cybersecurity experts have “expressed grave concern at the state of CISA and its ability to function.” Industry leaders and state and local officials have told his office they have “reduced responsiveness and support” from CISA and that “staffing turbulence at CISA has disrupted its service delivery and operations.” Andersen recently announced that CISA is hiring more than 300 additional workers with some having already started. CISA will “continue to make these significant investments as the secretary indicated to Congress just in these last couple of weeks,” Andersen said in a speech last week. “Making sure that we have a ready and available cyber defense agency for the nation is critical,” he added. A spokesperson for CISA said in a statement that CISA does not “reply to congressional correspondence in the press and works directly with Congress to address their questions.” Five of the 10 CISA regional directors are serving in an acting capacity and a regional website includes the misspelled name of one such acting director. Warner also raised concerns about the “high turnover and persistent vacancies [that] plague CISA's headquarters leadership as well.” CISA has been without a permanent director since January 2025. Nominee Sean Plankey withdrew himself from consideration after senior senators blocked the vote for months. Andersen took over in February and then battled a record-setting shutdown during which a large percentage of employees were furloughed. Officials have not commented on when they will select a nominee. Warner’s letter asked CISA to produce organizational charts for regional offices and headquarters as they existed on January 20, 2025, October 1, 2025 and currently, all with enumerated vacancies explaining why individuals left. Warner also asked for a list showing how much “security services” CISA provided to state and local officials on a regional basis. The report must list vulnerability scans, risk assessments and incident response. CISA also must include the number of inbound service requests it received, how many were completed and what the average response time was. The letter also seeks to find out how many of CISA’s soon to be hired employees are earmarked for regional jobs and what kind of experience the new hires possess. Get more insights with the Recorded Future Intelligence Cloud. Learn more. No previous article No new articles Suzanne Smalley is a reporter covering digital privacy, surveillance technologies and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.