admin
The government shutdown that began on October 1, 2025, has done more than stall papers and furlough clerks; it has hollowed out the nation’s frontline cyber defenses at a moment of rising danger. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — the agency charged with protecting our electric grid, water systems and other critical infrastructure — has been forced to retain roughly one-third of its workforce, leaving intelligence, incident response and coordination badly weakened.
This is not a minor bookkeeping problem; it is an operational emergency. Internal planning documents and reporting show CISA expects to keep only about 889 employees on the job during the lapse in appropriations, with the rest furloughed or sidelined, meaning fewer analysts watching for intrusions and fewer people able to respond when attacks occur. The American people deserve better than partisan brinkmanship that leaves vital defenses understaffed.
At the same time, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 — the legal backbone that encourages private companies to share threat information with government partners by offering liability protections and privacy safeguards — expired on September 30, 2025. That expiration removes incentives and legal clarity for private-sector defenders to exchange actionable intelligence, choking off a flow of information that defenders have relied on for a decade.
The practical consequences are immediate and predictable: firms and local utilities that once cooperated closely with federal programs now face legal uncertainty and are far less likely to share indicators of compromise. Organizations that supported state and local cyber defenses, like the Center for Internet Security’s MS-ISAC program, have already lost federal support and cooperative agreements, further eroding the nation’s collective ability to spot and stop attacks. This is the exact opposite of the resilient posture Americans were promised.
Make no mistake: this mess is political negligence, not inevitability. Congress had a chance to act before the authorization lapsed and to keep CISA funded, but partisan posturing and procedural roadblocks — including objections to clean reauthorization from individual lawmakers — allowed these critical protections to fall through the cracks. When national security becomes a bargaining chip in budget fights, the people of this country pay the price in diminished security.
Every day that this stalemate continues, malicious actors gain an advantage. Intelligence reporting and cyber analysts have warned of increasing activity from nation-state adversaries and persistent ransomware groups; trimming the agency charged with coordinating defenses hands those bad actors a clearer path. Washington must stop the political theater and prioritize continuity of mission for agencies that shield Americans from threats that cross borders and jurisdictions.
The solution is straightforward and urgent: restore full funding for CISA, reauthorize the information-sharing protections that enable public-private cooperation, and end the practice of holding national security hostage to unrelated political fights. America’s cybersecurity cannot be left to the whims of budget brinkmanship; it requires steady, accountable leadership and a government that treats defense of critical infrastructure as nonnegotiable. The safety of our people and the integrity of our economy depend on it.
