Multiple CISA divisions targeted in shutdown layoffs, people familiar say
Several divisions in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were affected in termination orders issued to the federal workforce on Friday evening, multiple people familiar told Nextgov/FCW.
Staff within the Stakeholder Engagement Division, as well as the cyber-defense agency’s Infrastructure Security Division, were targeted with reduction-in-force notices, or RIFs, said the people. OMB Director Russ Vought announced the actions on Friday in line with Trump administration promises to enact layoffs during the ongoing government shutdown.
The Integrated Operations Division is also believed to have been impacted, one of the people said. All sources in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal from the Trump administration.
A DHS spokesperson said that the RIFs are meant to help get CISA “back on mission.” The agency has been targeted for substantive reductions since Trump reentered the Oval Office in January.
CISA’s Stakeholder Engagement Division oversees the agency’s national and international partnership work. The Infrastructure Security division is widely considered a core unit of the agency that helps protect against risks to infrastructure like power grids and water treatment plants.
That said, the infrastructure division hosts some subbranches that the Trump administration considers to be defunct. The Chemical Security subdivision, namely, is expected to phase out a number of initiatives and programs, per DHS budget justification documents released in May.
Employees in the Chemical Security office are believed to have been targeted Friday, though many staff there also took deferred resignation program offers earlier this year, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. DRPs, which have been issued multiple times to feds since January, allow people to leave government service early while getting paid for a set period of time.
The exact number of cybersecurity agency staff terminated Friday is not clear. A court filing says that 176 employees were cut in DHS, where CISA is housed. The administration’s filing suggested that further cuts remain a possibility across the federal enterprise.
Cybersecurity has been historically a bipartisan darling of Washington, but CISA, deemed the nation’s core civilian cyberdefense agency, has become a recent subject of political scuffles due to its prior work combatting mis- and disinformation.
The agency has faced scrutiny from the Trump administration for some time. Top officials have aimed to “refocus” its mission amidst GOP accusations that the agency engaged in censorship of Americans’ free speech. Those claims stem from CISA’s earlier collaboration with social media platforms to remove false information online concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, elections and other divisive subjects around 2020.
