Congressional Democrats are continuing to sound the alarm over staffing cuts at the nation’s cybersecurity agency and underscoring the need for the federal government to be prepared for cyberattacks.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has laid off some workers and furloughed many others during the partial government shutdown.
DHS initially said in a court filing that it was issuing reduction-in-force notices to 176 employees. It later reduced that number to 54, though it did not specify how many CISA employees were affected. According to DHS’ shutdown plan, CISA had just over 2,500 employees at the end of May but will operate with fewer than 900 during the lapse in appropriations, with the rest furloughed. That number was prior to RIFs at DHS.
