Lawmakers are moving to extend key cybersecurity information authorities and grant programs, while also providing funds for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to fill “critical” positions.

The “minibus” appropriations agreement released by House and Senate negotiators on Tuesday includes fiscal 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security. DHS funding could be a sticking point in moving the bill forward, as some Democrats want more restrictions around the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.

The bill also extends the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) and the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program through the end of fiscal 2026. Both laws are set to expire at the end of this month.

The extension would give lawmakers more time to work out differences between competing versions of CISA 2015 reauthorizations in the House and Senate.

Ross Nodurft, executive director of the Alliance for Digital Innovation, also applauded the extension of the Technology Modernization Fund included in the minibus.

“Reauthorizing the Technology Modernization Fund and the State and Local Cyber Grant Program for the rest of the fiscal year allows the government to invest money in new technology modernization and cyber security projects at the federal and state level while we work on more permanent, longer term reauthorizations and funding,” Nodurft said. “I am encouraged to see Congress put forward these stop gap measures and will continue to work with members to reauthorize these critical programs beyond 2026.”

CISA funding

The bill would include a cut for the agency CISA, with fiscal 2026 funding level set at $2.6 billion, about $300 million less than its current annual budget.

But CISA has already seen steep workforce cuts and program reductions under the Trump administration. The Trump administration proposed cutting CISA’s budget by roughly $500 million.

The appropriations agreement would specifically provide $20 million for CISA to hire additional staff to “critical positions,” according to the joint explanatory statement on the DHS appropriations measure.

That funding would be evenly split across five CISA programs: Threat Hunting; Vulnerability Management; Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation; Security Programs; and Security Advisors.

The bill would also require CISA to “not reduce staffing in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to effectively carry out its statutory missions.” Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed concerns about CISA losing roughly one-third of its staff over the past year.

Secret Service burnout

Appropriators are also taking aim at burnout within the Secret Service’s ranks. The funding measure provides $3.3 billion for the Secret Service as it embarks on a major recruiting initiative over the next two years.

That total would allow the Secret Service to “maintain ‘zero-fail’ mission by funding aggressive recruitment and retention to eliminate officer burnout, while modernizing high-tech training facilities and armored fleets to stay ahead of evolving threats
to our nation’s leaders,” according to a DHS spending bill summary provided by Senate appropriators.

The bill includes an increase of $46 million for Secret Service hiring in fiscal 2026. It also provides the agency with advance funding to prepare for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

But appropriators also want updates on the Secret Service’s recruitment and retention efforts. The explanatory statement directs the agency to provide briefings on its employee resiliency program and hiring projections, respectively.

“The briefing shall also include ongoing efforts to decrease the time to hire and increase yield rates from applicants to hires, as well as the impact that these hiring efforts will have on overtime costs,” lawmakers wrote.

FEMA staffing

The spending agreement also includes a “rejection” of staffing cuts made at the Federal Emergency Management Agency in fiscal 2025, according to the joint explanatory statement. The bill would provide $32 billion for FEMA, including $26.4 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund.

FEMA lost more than 2,000 employees to workforce reduction programs last year. And the agency has undertaken further staff reductions by not renewing Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) in recent weeks. FEMA headquarters officials have also contemplated cuts totaling up to 50% of its workforce as part of a planning exercise shared with agency leaders in December.

Now, appropriators want FEMA to provide monthly briefings on the agency’s staffing levels and workload requirements.

“Such briefings shall also include projected staffing levels for the remainder of the fiscal year in light of the agreement’s rejection of the position reductions implemented in fiscal year 2025,” the joint explanatory statement reads.

The bill also requires FEMA to maintain staff “necessary to fulfill the missions” required of the agency by six separate laws and various other authorities. That staffing requirement, lawmakers emphasize, also applies to FEMA reservists and CORE staff.

The Trump administration has moved to shift more emergency management responsibilities to state and local governments. FEMA staffing reductions and policy changes over the last year have sparked concerns that the administration is implementing that plan despite there being no changes in the agency’s lawful responsibilities.

The post DHS spending bill bolsters staffing at CISA, FEMA, Secret Service first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency is at the center of new calls to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In a letter to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, 14 House Democrats said Trump should fire Noem over what they say are damaging cuts to FEMA’s workforce. They also said Noem’s policy of signing off on all spending over $100,000 is slowing down FEMA’s disaster response efforts. The letter comes a day after more than 50 House Dems filed articles of impeachment against Noem, citing her handling of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
  (Democrats' letter on Noem - Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.))
• The Congressional Budget Office estimates that President Donald Trump’s plan to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War would cost taxpayers between $10 million and $125 million. The total cost of rebranding the Defense Department could vary depending on how broadly and quickly the name change is implemented across the department. Immediately replacing signs and stationary would be more expensive than gradually implementing those changes “as existing stocks are exhausted.” The Defense Department did not provide information to the CBO on the scope of its implementation plan.
  (Renaming the Defense Department could cost up to $125 million - Congressional Budget Office)
• The Defense Department is overhauling its big data analytics platform known as Advana. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the evolution of Advana over the last several years has led to a “complex technical and programmatic architecture.” Hegseth directed the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer to restructure Advana into three distinct programs. This restructuring will help accelerate progress toward a clean DoD financial audit in 2028.
  (DoD moves to restructure its Advana program - Defense Department)
• GSA's new administrator set the tone for how he views the agency's role across government. Ed Forst has officially been on the job as GSA's administrator for about 15 days. But he's been learning about the agency for several months. During that time, Forst, speaking at the Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement's winter conference yesterday, said he understands the role GSA should be playing across government. "Let's advance mission and let's have the engine room, what's behind the curtain, consolidate and get even better. That's where I see GSA in the federal government. We are the engine room." Forst said.
  (Forst calls GSA the 'engine room' of government - CGP)
• A bipartisan group of lawmakers are looking to give federal correctional officers a major salary boost. A new bill introduced in both the House and Senate aims to increase pay rates for Bureau of Prisons staff by 35% across the board. Authors of the bill say it would help address longtime staffing shortages at the agency. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents thousands of BOP workers, has expressed support for the bill.
  (Federal Correctional Officer Paycheck Protection Act - Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and David McCormick (R-Pa.))
• The Department of Health and Human Services is rescinding all layoffs for employees at a workplace safety agency. HHS last spring sent layoff notices to about 1,000 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH focuses on workplace safety and health standards. Those layoffs targeted about 90% of NIOSH’s staff. HHS walked back some layoffs last year, but said it’s now reinstating every NIOSH employee who received layoff notices. Hundreds of these terminated employees have been on paid administrative for the past nine months.
  (HHS reinstates all laid-off employees at workplace safety agency NIOSH - Federal News Network)
• Five years in the making, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy will finally kick off a new effort this winter to review procurement laws and how they apply to commercial buying. Matthew Blum, OFPP's deputy administrator, said the requirement is from the 2019 defense authorization bill and will provide OFPP with a big opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review. Congress told OFPP and the FAR Council to determine if commercial buying has been hampered by the improper application of federal procurement laws. Blum said this review will provide OFPP with a big opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review in the spirit of streamlining and restoring common sense to procurement.
  (OFPP to review procurement laws' impact on commercial buying - CGP)
• Hundreds of federal employees are calling for the restoration of their collective bargaining rights. At a union rally on Wednesday, hundreds gathered outside the Capitol building to urge a Senate vote on the Protect America’s Workforce Act. After the legislation cleared the House in December, federal unions have been pushing senators to take up the companion bill. If enacted, the act would restore collective bargaining for an estimated two-thirds of federal agencies, effectively reversing President Trump’s orders for most agencies to terminate their federal union contracts.
  (Federal union, employees urge Senate to take up bill restoring collective bargaining - Federal News Network)
• The Postal Service’s regulator is setting limits on how often the agency can set higher prices for its mail products. The Postal Regulatory Commission said that starting in March, USPS can only raise mail prices once per year. This limit will remain in place through September 2030. USPS has generally been raising mail prices each January and July. The regulator eased restrictions on USPS prices in December 2020, when the agency was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and was months away from running out of cash.
  (Order adopting rules limiting frequency of rate increase - U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission)
• The White House said the new U.S. Tech Force is generating a lot of interest. More than 35,000 Americans have expressed interest in serving in the Tech Force. That’s according to Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “That's insane. That is incredible. That is something we should all be celebrating, this entire committee. The fact that we have so many great Americans that want to step in, move their families and their lives to D.C. to solve these problems for Americans," he said. Testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Wednesday, Kratsios said the tech force has unique buy-in from private sector companies. He brushed off criticism that the Trump administration spent the past year cutting many tech-focused staff, including at the former U.S. Digital Service.
  (Hearing with Michael Kratsios - House Committee on Science, Space and Technology)
• Federal agents have searched the home of a Washington Post reporter as the latest step in their investigation into a contractor accused of mishandling classified information. The FBI took the unusual step of serving a search warrant on a journalist as part of its investigation into a federal contractor who’s accused of taking classified information home. The newspaper said federal officials have given assurances that neither the Post nor the reporter, Hannah Natanson, are targets of the investigation. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the search was conducted at the request of the Pentagon, which reportedly told the Justice Department that the contractor had leaked classified information to Natanson.
  (Washington Post reporter's home searched by the FBI - Associated Press)

The post House Democrats call for DHS Secretary to be replaced first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s workforce continues to face uncertainty amid abrupt cuts to disaster response staff and planning emails that show FEMA has been contemplating deeper reductions.

Late last month, FEMA sent non-renewal notices to 50 Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (CORE) whose terms ended between Jan. 1 and Jan. 4. CORE employees are hired for two-to-four year terms, but they are often renewed to continue ongoing disaster work. CORE staff make up the majority of FEMA’s workforce, constituting 39% as of 2022. 

FEMA did not respond to a request for comment. In other stories on the CORE cuts, a FEMA spokesman has characterized them as “a routine staff adjustment of 50 staff out of 8,000.”

But a current FEMA supervisor and former FEMA supervisor, who were granted anonymity to candidly discuss the situation, both disputed the characterization of the terminations as “routine.”

They said FEMA CORE staff are almost always renewed due to demand for staff to respond to an increasing rate of disasters and other agency tasks in recent years.

CORE staff are often among the first FEMA employees to be deployed in a disaster, according to Rafael LeMaitre, a former FEMA director of public affairs who now serves on the advisory council for the advocacy group Sabotaging Our Safety.

“While they serve two-year contract terms, those are routinely renewed, because the number of disasters that the nation has been dealing with has not gone down,” LeMaitre said. “If anything, it’s increased, both in the number of disasters and the severity of disasters, given changes to the climate, and frankly, additional pressures that FEMA has been put under to respond to non-traditional types of emergencies.”

But the FEMA supervisors also described how, contrary to the recent non-renewals, decisions about extending CORE appointments are typically done on a case-by-case basis. The process typically includes an analysis of the employee’s workload and the need for them to continue working on a given disaster.

“We never fire people just because their renewal dates happened to fall in a given time frame,” the current FEMA supervisor said.

The renewal process typically starts 90 days before the employee’s “not-to-exceed” date, which refers to when their term ends.

But in early December, emails show FEMA divisions and regions received a tasking from the agency’s chief human capital office to submit justification packages for every CORE staff with an NTE date falling in January.

Those packages were submitted, but FEMA CORE staff with renewals falling Jan. 1-4 still received termination letters in late December.

It’s unclear what will happen to other FEMA CORE staff whose terms expire in January. With approximately 9,000 total FEMA CORE staff, hundreds could be up for renewal in any given month.

Earlier this week, FEMA leaders received new direction to submit justification packages for CORE staff whose terms expire in February, according to the current supervisor.

“This is not a targeted workforce reduction – this is using a sledgehammer when you should be using a scalpel,” the current FEMA supervisor said.

CNN first reported on FEMA’s CORE cuts.

Workforce reductions exercise

The cuts and uncertainty around CORE staff renewals come as FEMA has been analyzing much deeper cuts to its workforce, agency emails show.

In a Dec. 23 email viewed by Federal News Network, FEMA’s chief human capital office sought leadership input on a “Workforce Capacity Planning Exercise.” The email references how the exercise is “consistent” with a recent executive order and corresponding White House guidance on federal hiring.

The email included a “draft workforce plan” with a table laying out FEMA’s workforce totals as of Sept. 30 and fiscal 2026 “target” reductions.

The reductions listed in that table include a 50% overall reduction to FEMA’s total workforce of 23,000, including a 15% reduction the permanent full-time workforce and a 41% reduction to the disaster full-time workforce, which includes CORE staff.

The email states that the exercise is “pre-decisional in nature” and that “no staffing actions or personnel decisions are being directed or implemented as part of this request.”

But current and former FEMA staff say it would be highly unusual to conduct such an exercise without planning for some form of workforce reductions.

The Washington Post first reported on the workforce planning email.

FEMA cuts criticized

The latest FEMA cuts come after a year of turmoil at the agency that saw more than 2,000 employees depart through voluntary programs and some terminations. Those departures included two dozen senior leaders, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council’s report has been delayed, leaving to question the administration’s long-term plan for FEMA.

However, both President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have expressed a desire to eliminate or downsize FEMA, and instead shift more disaster recovery responsibilities to state and local governments.

Democrats in Congress were quick to criticize the latest FEMA CORE cuts and reports of deeper potential reductions.

“Even considering cuts of this scale is more evidence of the Trump administration’s reckless and dangerous behavior and sends a clear message that the administration is willing to gamble with Americans’ lives and violate federal law that Congress passed to ensure readiness for disasters,” House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) is among the lead sponsors of a bipartisan bill to overhaul FEMA. The legislation would notably remove FEMA out from under the Department of Homeland Security and have it report directly to the president.

“After multiple Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearings, we keep concluding FEMA needs more staff to meet the response needs of more frequent and severe disasters — like the recent flooding in my district,” Larsen said in a statement. “Cutting CORE staff will leave remaining FEMA workers scrambling and disaster survivors waiting longer for assistance. This is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. The administration must reverse this decision.”

The post Concerns mount over FEMA staff reductions first appeared on Federal News Network.

At the Department of Homeland Security, where you stand at the end of 2025 depends on where you sit.

With the Trump administration emphasizing border security and mass deportations as top priorities, DHS components that work in those areas saw both major funding increases and workforce boosts.

Meanwhile, other DHS components were swept up in the administration’s workforce reduction efforts. Some of those components were also in the crosshairs of new political leadership for program and funding cuts.

The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” tax and reconciliation measure passed in July only deepened those differences.

The legislation provided billions in additional funding for select DHS components like Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Meanwhile, other offices such as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have been hit by workforce reductions and funding cuts, ending support for programs and services like CISA’s Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Workforce fluctuates

DHS is one of the only departments to gain a net increase in employees over the last two years, according to an analysis of agency shutdown contingency plans compiled by the Partnership for Public Service.

While most agencies saw staffing reductions driven by the Department of Government Efficiency, DHS’s workforce grew by 6%, to 271,927 employees listed in its 2025 contingency plan.

The Trump administration’s high-profile focus on immigration enforcement operations brings with it more funding and personnel for agencies like ICE and CBP. According to shutdown contingency plans, ICE’s workforce increased by more than 500 employees between June 2024 and September 2025. CBP’s workforce grew by more than 1,500 employees over the same period.

The Coast Guard’s workforce has swelled by nearly 2,000 as part of a recruiting campaign started by the Biden administration and further boosted under the Trump administration through the “Force Design 2028” initiative.

Many positions at DHS, including law enforcement positions, were exempt from workforce reduction efforts like deferred resignations and earlier retirements.

But some components, including CISA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, underwent stark staff reductions driven by program cuts and voluntary departures.

CISA’s workforce has dropped by nearly one-third, from 3,400 employees in June 2024 to 2,500 staff as of May 31, 2025, according to the contingency plans. More CISA employees may have departed since the latest tally.

FEMA, meanwhile, has seen the number of active employees decrease from roughly 25,800 at the start of the year to 23,350 as of June 1, according to the Government Accountability Office. That includes 24 FEMA senior executives, “widely respected agency leaders who departed voluntarily given the uncertainty around the agency’s future,” GAO noted.

The future of FEMA has been an open question as the Trump administration has targeted the agency for steep cuts. A FEMA Review Council set up by Trump was set to issue recommendations this month, but the White House indefinitely postponed the council’s final meeting.

The Trump administration has also proposed some cuts to the Transportation Security Administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is further moving to eliminate TSA employees’ collective bargaining rights.

‘Big bill’ brings big changes

Further changes are underway at DHS, largely thanks to the $165 billion included for the department in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” That funding lasts through 2029 and is largely unspent.

It includes $4.1 billion for CBP to hire 5,000 customs officers and 3,000 border patrol agents over the next four years, and $8 billion for ICE to hire 10,000 new officers. DHS says ICE has already reached that goal as 2025 comes to a close.

The bill also includes billions in funding for new immigration detention facilities, border security infrastructure, training facilities, vehicles, Coast Guard ships and more.

Industry will be watching closely as DHS’s spend plans for the reconciliation bill come together.

Senior leaders

With Year 1 of the second Trump administration nearly complete, many presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed positions at DHS remain vacant or filled by acting personnel. Trump has yet to nominate a FEMA administrator, a TSA administrator or a DHS under secretary for management, among other positions.

Meanwhile, Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Troy Edgar will soon depart DHS after being nominated to serve as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. The administration has not yet named a replacement.

CISA has been without a permanent director since January. Sean Plankey was nominated to serve as CISA director in March, but his nomination has been held up in the Senate over multiple issues unrelated to concerns about his appointment.

The post For DHS workforce, 2025 marked a year of major change first appeared on Federal News Network.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency would be required to create a universal disaster assistance application under a bill passed by the Senate last week. The goal of the Disaster Assistance Simplification Act is to make it easier for disaster survivors to access federal aid. Lawmakers say the current process is complex and time consuming, with different agencies using different forms. The bill would also require all information shared between FEMA and partner agencies to meet federal data security standards.
  (Senate passes Peters, Paul, Lankford and Tillis bipartisan legislation to simplify application process for federal disaster assistance - Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)
• The Trump administration is challenging a federal judge’s order to rescind more federal employee layoffs. Last week, a judge directed the Trump administration to undo reductions in force for workers who were officially separated from their jobs during the recent government shutdown. The decision would give about 700 individuals their jobs back. The Justice Department has appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It’s asking the higher court to allow the RIFs to remain in place.
  (Notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit - U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California)
• The Defense Logistics Agency is making the holidays a little bit more like home for troops stationed outside the United States and away from family. Calling it one of its important missions, DLA is providing holiday meals to warfighters around the globe. It will deliver 101,000 pounds of turkey, more than 6,400 cakes and pies and almost 1,500 cases of eggnog to service members to help them celebrate Christmas and New Years. DLA said delivering the food to service members is a major morale boost, combats loneliness and aides in homesickness.
  (DLA to deliver 101,000 pounds of turkey, other holiday fare around the globe - Defense Logistics Agency)
• Some service members stationed within the Continental United States will see their take-home pay decrease starting January after the Defense Department updated its cost-of-living allowance rates. All 21 non-metropolitan counties in California and New York will lose COLA allowance. Nine military housing areas will lose the allowance entirely, including Boston, Massachusetts and San Luis Obispo and Riverside in California. Eight military housing areas will see an increase in COLA allowance, including Seattle and San Francisco. The Defense Department said CONUS COLA will cost about $99 million, benefiting roughly 127,000 service members nationwide in 2026.
  (Pentagon cuts COLA in dozens of counties, reduces rates in major cities - Federal News Network)
• OPM is hiring a new person to lead its HR technology modernization effort. Nearly two months after telling OPM its plan to modernize and consolidate 119 HR systems across government was "madness," Don Bauer is going to be in charge of that effort. Bauer will join OPM on Jan. 12 as its deputy associate director for workforce standards and data center in the HR Solutions (HRS) office. He will be leading the HR Line of Business, the quality service management office (QSMO) and human capital management core modernization effort. Bauer said after posting a critical column on Federal News Network, OPM leaders called him to discuss the modernization effort, Seven weeks later, Bauer is returning to the government.
  (Bauer’s criticism of HR modernization effort turns into job offer from OPM - Federal News Network)
• Pentagon officials acknowledged that military services could inflate cyber readiness levels as the Defense Department works to standardize how it manages its cyber workforce, but said the effort is still in its early stages and validation mechanisms are being developed to prevent “rubber-stamping” qualifications. While the Pentagon is moving away from relying solely on individual military services to self-assess cyber readiness, it still largely depends on self-reported data, which raises concerns about the accuracy of readiness reporting. DoD officials said readiness reporting shouldn’t be treated as a “compliance drill,” but rather a tool the services can use to advocate for additional resources.
  (Concerns persist over self-reported cyber readiness as DoD overhauls workforce management - Federal News Network)
• Senate appropriators want to stem some staff cuts at the Department of Homeland Security. The Senate Appropriations Committee’s draft homeland security spending bill for 2026 would add $40 million for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to hire critical staff. That comes after roughly 2,500 FEMA staff departed the agency in 2025 amid sweeping changes under the Trump administration. The draft spending bill would also maintain funding levels at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and stipulate that CISA maintain enough staff to carry out its statutory missions. CISA’s staffing has been reduced by nearly a third in fiscal 2025.
  (Senate lawmakers look to stem staff cuts at CISA, FEMA - Federal News Network)
• The Trump administration gave federal employees extra days off around Christmas. But the IRS and the Social Security Administration will stay open. Both SSA and the IRS are looking for volunteers to keep working on Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 and are offering holiday pay to those who sign up. Both agencies typically see a lower volume of calls and in-person visits at this point, but internal memos say they need to stay open to deliver on their frontline missions. President Donald Trump gave most federal employees these days off, but his executive order said some federal employees may still need to report for duty for “national security, defense or other public need.”
  (Social Security, IRS will stay open on extra holidays Trump granted to most federal employees - Federal News Network)

The post New bipartisan bill makes access to federal disaster aid relief easier first appeared on Federal News Network.

Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee have put forward a 2026 homeland security spending bill that would staunch some workforce cuts at the Department of Homeland Security.

The committee released a draft version of the fiscal 2026 homeland security appropriations measure on Friday. Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill after the holidays with a deadline to pass annual spending bills for most federal agencies by Jan. 30, when the current continuing resolution expires.

Lead appropriators in the House and Senate reached an agreement on funding allocations for the remainder of fiscal 2026 over the weekend. While they did not release specific numbers, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said the allocations would fall below projected spending levels under the CR.

“This pathway forward aligns with President Trump’s clear direction to rein in runaway, beltway-driven spending,” Cole said in a statement. “We will now begin expeditiously drafting the remaining nine full-year bills to ensure we are ready to complete our work in January.”

What’s the topline Senate DHS funding package?

Senate appropriators’ draft homeland security spending bill includes $92.3 billion for DHS in fiscal 2026, including nearly $66 billion in discretionary spending and $26.3 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund.

Those totals roughly align with what House Appropriations included in their homeland security spending package over the summer. It also comes after DHS received $165 billion in additional funding through fiscal 2029 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July.

However, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) slammed the Senate committee’s draft proposal, calling it a “partisan bill” and saying Republicans didn’t work with Democrats to finalize a negotiated bill.

“We need more accountability from President Trump’s out-of-control Department of Homeland Security, and as we proceed to conference negotiations on this bill and the remainder of our bills, I am going to keep working to produce the strongest possible legislation,” Murray said. “American families should be able to count on their own government to support them through serious natural disasters and to enforce our immigration laws humanely and in accordance with the law.”

FEMA staffing concerns

The report on the draft homeland security spending bill, however, shows committee Republicans have some concerns about workforce cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Roughly 2,500 FEMA staff have left the agency since the spring. The Trump administration has also expressed a desire to move more of FEMA’s responsibilities to state and local governments.

“The committee is concerned that staffing levels are insufficient to effectively and efficiently execute FEMA’s statutory missions,” the report on the draft bill states.

The bill would provide an additional $40 million for FEMA to hire staff to critical positions in its regional operations, and response and recovery divisions, respectively.

The report on the draft bill also stipulates that FEMA “shall maintain a workforce consistent with the personnel and full-time equivalents funded by the pay and non-pay amounts provided in this act.”

“FEMA shall not reduce staffing in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to issue guidance, provide payments, and provide technical assistance and operational support to grantees in a timely manner; review and approve plans for obligating and expending Federal funds; review expenditures and reports for waste, fraud, and abuse; and perform all other necessary duties to allow recipients to proceed without unnecessary interruption,” the report continues.

CISA cut softened

Like their House counterparts, Senate appropriators are also looking to shore up funding at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, rejecting steeper CISA cuts proposed by the Trump administration.

The draft Senate bill includes roughly $2.8 billion for CISA in fiscal 2026, just below 2025 funding levels for the cyber agency.

The bill would also reject proposed cuts at CISA’s National Risk Management Center. It would provide $126 million for the NRMC to maintain fiscal 2024 service and staffing levels.

Lawmakers direct CISA to provide a briefing “on the NRMC’s strategic engagement with election stakeholders, including engagement progress to date, future engagement plans and priorities, and information regarding any identified election security risks and shortfalls that should be mitigated in the near-, mid-, and long-terms.”

CISA has lost one-third of its workforce, roughly 1,000 staff, since the spring through a combination of voluntary departures, early retirements and terminations.

The Trump administration’s budget request would reduce CISA’s annual budget by nearly $500 million. It also proposed staff cuts at some CISA divisions, including the NRMC.

Like with FEMA, Senate appropriators also include language in their bill that CISA “shall maintain a workforce consistent with the personnel and full-time equivalents funded by the pay and non-pay amounts provided in this act.”

“CISA shall not reduce staffing in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to effectively carry out its statutory missions,” the bill states, pointing to the agency’s efforts to secure federal civilian executive branch agencies, work with state and local governments, other sector risk management agencies, international partners and other stakeholders.

It further stipulates that CISA should maintain “no fewer” than 10 regional field offices across the country and directs CISA to employ at least one cybersecurity advisor per state.

The post Senate lawmakers look to stem staff cuts at CISA, FEMA first appeared on Federal News Network.