US cybersecurity agency funding under fire from Sen. Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul, a top critic of the federal government’s cybersecurity watchdog, says the agency is overstepping its authority by trying to regulate the flow of information online.

The Republican from Kentucky has expressed concern about the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s 50% budget growth over the last five years and what he calls its censorship of content on social media. The agency refutes the latter.

“CISA has blatantly violated the First Amendment and colluded with big tech to censor the speech of ordinary Americans,” Paul said in a statement to Federal Times. “Federal courts have ordered CISA to stop, but the trust CISA has abused cannot be restored until the agency gives a full accounting of what it has done, and Congress changes the law to create severe penalties for anyone who tries to do the same thing in the future.”

Even before a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in an opinion that CISA and other federal officials interacted with sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter (now known as X) to moderate information, Paul emerged as an opponent of expanding CISA’s power.

The Washington Post previously reported he has opposed at least 11 bills that would address cybersecurity in some part.

The senator didn’t say what a compromise would look like, though he has introduced a bill of his own that would mandate public reporting of communications between any federal agencies and tech companies. It would also prohibit funding of anything that resembled the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board, which lasted only a few months before it was dissolved last summer.

In his statement, Paul said his legislation would “require CISA to come clean about its actions that violated the First Amendment, but also establish the penalties that will prevent government censorship in the future.”

CISA has taken a prominent role in the Biden administration’s broader campaign to secure government technology, fill cyber talent gaps and defend public infrastructure from increasingly complex cyberattacks. Now, at the start of a new fiscal year, it plans to keep hiring and to build out cyber reporting and mitigation processes if it receives the funding it requested.

Housed within the Department of Homeland Security, CISA was created in 2018 under President Donald Trump to monitor and prevent cyberattacks in and out of government.

“This mission has never been more urgent as our nation faces a wide array of threats that could undermine our national security, our economic prosperity, and our public health and safety,” Jen Easterly, CISA’s director, said during March testimony before the House Appropriations Committee.

At the time, Easterly was presenting the president’s budget request for CISA, which called for $3.1 billion in fiscal 2024 — an increase of $149 million over the prior fiscal year.

Despite disagreements, there has been a bipartisan call to shore up cybersecurity and update legacy IT, especially against advanced adversaries like China — the “broadest, most active, and persistent cyber espionage threat to U.S. government and private-sector networks,” according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s most recent threat assessment .

Several bills have been proposed to address different aspects of that goal.

For instance, in May, the House pushed several bills through committee , including two to address security risks in open-source software and expand cyber training for DHS employees.

Another workforce-related bill, the Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve Act, emerged from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with bipartisan support in May. That bill aims to address chronic talent shortages through a pilot program of tech experts who would serve in a program similar to the military’s National Guard or reserves.

Another key bill awaiting lawmakers is the full spending package for CISA. After Congress failed to pass a budget last month, agencies are now operating under a continuing resolution that expires Nov. 17.

DHS previously said a funding gap hampers cybersecurity and critical infrastructure support.

Molly Weisner is a staff reporter for Federal Times where she covers labor, policy and contracting pertaining to the government workforce. She made previous stops at USA Today and McClatchy as a digital producer, and worked at The New York Times as a copy editor. Molly majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

联邦政府网络安全监管机构的主要批评者之一、参议员兰德·保罗表示，该机构试图监管在线信息流动，这是越权行为。

这位来自肯塔基州的共和党议员对网络安全和基础设施安全局过去五年预算增长50%表示担忧，并指责该机构审查社交媒体内容。该机构否认了后一种说法。

保罗在致《联邦时报》的一份声明中表示：“CISA公然违反了宪法第一修正案，并与大型科技公司勾结，审查普通美国民众的言论。联邦法院已下令CISA停止这种行为，但只有当该机构对其所作所为做出全面交代，并且国会修改法律，对任何未来试图效仿此举的人处以严厉惩罚时，CISA滥用的信任才能得以恢复。”

甚至在第五巡回上诉法院发表意见称 CISA 和其他联邦官员与 Facebook、Google 和 Twitter（现称为 X）等网站互动以审核信息之前，保罗就已成为 CISA 扩大权力的反对者。

《华盛顿邮报》此前报道称，他至少反对过 11 项涉及网络安全的法案。

这位参议员没有说明妥协方案的具体内容，但他本人也提出了一项法案，要求公开所有联邦机构与科技公司之间的通信记录。该法案还将禁止资助任何类似于国土安全部虚假信息治理委员会的机构。该委员会仅存在数月便于去年夏天解散。

保罗在声明中表示，他的立法将“要求网络安全和基础设施安全局 (CISA) 对其违反第一修正案的行为做出明确说明，同时也将制定惩罚措施，以防止政府在未来进行审查”。

在拜登政府旨在保障政府技术安全、填补网络安全人才缺口以及保护公共基础设施免受日益复杂的网络攻击的更广泛行动中，CISA发挥了重要作用。如今，在新财年伊始，如果获得所申请的资金，CISA计划继续招聘并完善网络安全报告和缓解流程。

CISA隶属于国土安全部，于2018年在唐纳德·特朗普总统的领导下成立，旨在监控和防止政府内外的网络攻击。

“鉴于我国面临各种可能损害国家安全、经济繁荣以及公共卫生和安全的威胁，这项任务从未像现在这样紧迫，”网络安全和基础设施安全局 (CISA) 局长 Jen Easterly 在 3 月份向众议院拨款委员会作证时表示。

当时，伊斯特利正在提交总统的 CISA 预算申请，该申请要求在 2024 财年拨款 31 亿美元，比上一财年增加 1.49 亿美元。

尽管存在分歧，但两党都呼吁加强网络安全并更新传统 IT，特别是针对像中国这样的先进对手——根据国家情报总监办公室最新的威胁评估，中国是“对美国政府和私营部门网络最广泛、最活跃和最持久的网络间谍威胁”。

已经提出了几项法案来解决该目标的不同方面。

例如，今年 5 月，众议院推动几项法案通过委员会审议，其中包括两项旨在解决开源软件安全风险和扩大国土安全部员工网络安全培训的法案。

另一项与劳动力相关的法案——《民用网络安全储备法案》——于5月在参议院国土安全和政府事务委员会获得两党支持。该法案旨在通过一项试点计划来解决长期存在的人才短缺问题，该计划将招募技术专家，让他们参与类似于军队国民警卫队或预备役的计划。

另一项等待立法者审议的关键法案是网络安全和基础设施安全局（CISA）的全部支出方案。由于国会上个月未能通过预算，各机构目前依靠一项将于11月17日到期的临时拨款法案维持运转。

美国国土安全部此前表示，资金缺口阻碍了网络安全和关键基础设施的支持。

莫莉·韦斯纳是《联邦时报》的专职记者，主要报道与政府劳动力相关的劳工、政策和合同方面的新闻。她曾先后在《今日美国》和麦克拉奇报业集团担任数字内容制作人，并在《纽约时报》担任过文字编辑。莫莉毕业于北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校，主修新闻学。