At Wednesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Andrew Gabarino (R-NY) questioned DHS Sec. Kristi Noem.
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00:00With that, Chairman, I yield back.
00:02General Lee yields. Mr. Gabarino is recognized.
00:05Thank you, Chairman.
00:07Madam Secretary, thank you so much for being here today.
00:09I'm the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection,
00:13so I work with CISA a lot.
00:16I have a few quick questions for you.
00:18Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 provides a modern basis for information sharing
00:23between the private sector and the federal government.
00:25My subcommittee tomorrow will be having a hearing on CISA, the renewal of CISA 2015.
00:30Since it expires in September.
00:32I'm just wondering, do you support the reauthorization of CISA 2015 ahead of its expiration?
00:37Yes, I do, sir.
00:38It's an incredibly important piece of legislation.
00:40Wonderful. Thank you very much.
00:43Another hearing that we had this year, we dealt with the proposed CERCEA rulemaking process.
00:51And it started under the Biden administration.
00:53We heard from industry, they were not happy the way it went.
00:56I'm not happy with the way, I'm sure a lot of people aren't.
00:59I'm happy the way it went.
01:00And I still remain concerned that the scope of the proposed rules have strayed from Congressional's intent.
01:06One of the things that came up at our hearing was whether or not CISA would consider to provide an ex parte process
01:14so we could get more comments from industry and hopefully get this back on track
01:18instead of starting over from scratch because it has to be done.
01:21Is that something that the department would consider?
01:24Yes, we would support that, sir.
01:26I think that more input from the private sector is important to make sure we're doing the appropriate actions.
01:30I mean, information sharing and making sure that people are actually responding to incidents
01:34instead of talking to their attorneys, I think, is very, very important.
01:39And we want to make sure that this is the response rule, not just one of many other rules that are out there.
01:45I sent a letter back on February 19th regarding workforce reductions.
01:55It was about CISA staff that was fired and their responsibilities and titles.
02:00I have not yet received a response.
02:01And given the growing cybersecurity threat landscape and the administration's stated interest,
02:08which they have in addressing these threats, I'm concerned that reducing CISA's staff
02:13will not help CISA accomplish the mission of protecting cybersecurity,
02:21providing cybersecurity to the people that need it or helping.
02:23The letter asked for the number of staff, the responsibilities of those staff,
02:30and the impacts on CISA's ability to fulfill its mission.
02:33I know you can't provide that answer now, but can I get a commitment to get that response to that letter sometime soon?
02:41Absolutely.
02:42I appreciate that as well.
02:44And I know we're here about the budget, so I do want to ask some questions.
02:48In the administration's skinny budget request, it's seeking a $491 million reduction for CISA.
02:58I'm all on board with getting rid of disinformation and misinformation, and I was supportive of that cut,
03:03but that was in fiscal year 2023, that was only $20 million.
03:08Only $20 million of its budget went.
03:10So getting rid of that, that still leaves about $471 million of cuts,
03:16which was about a 17% cut to its total budget.
03:21What is, why such a large cut?
03:26And in addition to that, there was also, I believe, a program request moving $130 million around.
03:35What is that, what programs are going to be affected with that request?
03:39Well, Congressman, the focus within CISA needs to be on ensuring that it's fulfilling why it was created.
03:45It was created to support critical infrastructure and to make sure that we're out there addressing the cybersecurity concerns that we have.
03:53The reductions that you see are in the areas where it got off mission,
03:56where it was involved in missed, dis, and malinformation, and also the censorship activities.
04:02That's where the reflection is.
04:03But the cybersecurity side of CISA is strengthened and emboldened under President Trump's leadership
04:08and will-be into the future, and making sure that we're giving them the tools that they need to create new partnerships.
04:15Those plans to partner with private industries will make us much more efficient and accountable to taxpayers,
04:21while making sure that we actually have answers to some of the threats that we have in front of us.
04:25That's the thing that has alarmed me the most about CISA is the lack of information that they have,
04:33the lack of solutions that they have, and how they protect our critical infrastructure.
04:37And when you look at Volt Typhoon, it wasn't just that we're vulnerable.
04:40It's that the Chinese have proven, PRC has proven, with bad actors that they can shut down our water plants,
04:47our electrical grid, that they have the ability to do that.
04:50And if we think something in the past, like a pandemic or a crisis like that was scary,
04:56wait until people's electricity is gone or their water system shuts down.
05:01And so that is one of the reasons why CISA needs to be laser-focused on truly what its mission is.
05:07Yeah, I appreciate that, and I'm out of time, but I also just want to say I hope we can work together on this,
05:11and I'm very excited for Mr. Planky's nomination.
05:14I think he's going to do a great job, and hopefully they can confirm him sometime soon.
05:17But I'd like to talk to you more about the budget when we have a chance.
05:20Time has expired.
05:21Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask you now, Ms. Kim.