CISA Official: 25% Budget Cut Would Be ‘Catastrophic’

Republicans in September unsuccessfully tried to cut CISA’s budget by 25%. President Joe Biden’s $3 billion request for fiscal 2024 is an increase of about 18% from the $2.6 billion enacted for fiscal 2022 and an increase of about 5% from the $2.9 billion enacted for 2023. During a House Cybersecurity Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, ranking member Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., asked Goldstein about the potential for a government shutdown and the 25% cut. A “significant cut to our budget would be catastrophic,” said Goldstein. CISA wouldn’t be able to sustain core functions across the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program and Shared Cybersecurity Services, he said: Collaboration with federal agencies would drop off, and adversaries would “exploit those gaps.” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Goldstein he has never heard a bureaucrat say a significant budget cut wouldn’t be “catastrophic,” regardless of whether it’s 25% or 5%. “Sometimes you can sustain some cuts if you look deep enough,” said Gimenez. “It seems to me that whatever you do, however secure you think you’re going to be, someone’s always going to crack you. Am I off on that? Someone’s always going to find a way, if they really want to, to get through the system. Is that true or not true?” Goldstein said cybercriminals are “opportunistic,” and adversaries “want to find a network to break into.” If CISA can make it “as hard as possible” to breach the most important agencies, adversaries will shift their focus, he said. If there’s a government shutdown, Goldstein said, CISA can maintain its core functions, but strategic and systematic work to engage agencies to deploy technology “will be on hold.”