Trump allies push to restore funding for cyber agency ahead of midterms

Republican lawmakers are urging the reinstatement of staff and budget for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency as concerns grow over AI-driven election threats.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, once targeted by the Trump administration for its role in debunking election-fraud claims, is now the focus of a reversal by Trump allies who fear it may be unable to counter new AI-based hacking threats. Former director Christopher Krebs had previously highlighted the agency’s success in securing the 2020 vote, a stance that angered the president. House Republicans Andrew Garbarino of New York and Don Bacon of Nebraska, who chair key cyber-policy panels, are quietly urging their party to restore personnel and increase the agency’s budget.

They argue that without these resources the agency cannot safeguard the midterm elections, water treatment facilities, or the power grid. The administration’s request for roughly $2 billion in FY 2027 has been boosted by lawmakers to $2.4 billion, though it remains below the near-$3 billion annual funding under the Biden administration. The additional money is intended to help the agency address frontier AI models and fortify federal systems against emerging cyber threats.