Sharing the Facts About the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the leading federal agency responsible for protecting American infrastructure from cyberattacks. In 2018, during President Trump’s first term, CISA’s work was expanded to include election security efforts. Since then, it has distributed grants to state officials for new election equipment and to bolster security, shared information about security threats, and provided guidance on how to strengthen election infrastructure, along with a host of other crucial services and partnerships.

But soon after Trump returned to office in 2025, federal officials made significant cuts to the agency. Between terminations and resignations, the agency lost thousands of staff—about a third of its total workforce. The administration also cut millions of dollars from its budget and is proposing to cut hundreds of millions more.

While these reductions hampered CISA’s ability to support election security efforts, much of its work does continue. In many cases, it has largely fallen on state and local election officials to contract with non-federal cybersecurity organizations or hire new staff of their own to fill the gaps created by federal cuts.

Here are some key takeaways about the cuts to CISA:

• Election security is national security.
  • CISA is supposed to help our election officials keep our elections free, safe, and secure.
  • In an era of escalating cyber threats, CISA should serve as a nonpartisan shield for America’s election infrastructure. It should ensure that state and local leaders have the support they need to defend free and fair elections against those who seek to disrupt them.
  • With reduced federal support to combat foreign interference, state and local election officials have taken the lead.
  • State and local election officials have continued to work with trusted contractors like the Center for Internet Security, or have used their state National Guard’s cybersecurity units.
• Local election officials may face additional hardships after the rollback of federal funding and election security resources.
  • Cuts to federal resources put extra pressure on the local leaders running our elections. Despite doing more with less, state and local officials continue working tirelessly to protect every vote.
  • In some cases, nonprofits have stepped up to help them where possible. Organizations like the Election Security Exchange and the Partnership for Elections and Security Response have helped fill the gaps.
• Free and fair elections rely on partnerships across all levels of government.
  • Election and law enforcement officials have relied on CISA’s tools to keep our voting systems secure and coordinate across emergency services.
  • State and local officials set election rules, oversee voting, supervise vote counts, certify the results, and defend the will of the people in court. Facing reduced federal support, these front-line leaders are stepping up to protect our infrastructure against rising threats.