Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, testifies during the DHS oversight hearing in the Cannon House office building on Jan. 21, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Heather Diehl / Getty Images
CISA’s acting chief says 70 staff were reassigned to other DHS offices in last year
The cyberdefense agency in turn received some 30 employees from other DHS components, while a “handful” of CISA staffers were transferred to ICE, Madhu Gottumukkala told lawmakers.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s top official confirmed to House appropriators that multiple employees were given transfer orders to other offices inside the Department of Homeland Security over the last year.
Acting director Madhu Gottumukkala’s remarks in a Wednesday hearing came weeks after he appeared to say that those transfers — deemed as official Management Directed Reassignments — did not occur during his tenure at the cyberdefense agency. He appeared with other DHS component leaders for a hearing to discuss contingency plans for a potential lapse in DHS funding that’s set for Friday unless Congress can reconcile on a budget bill in time.
In January, when pressed about the reassignments in the House Homeland Security Committee, Gottumukkala said those occurred “not in my time.” On Wednesday, he said about 70 CISA staffers were given reassignments and that a “handful” were transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In turn, “30 plus” people were also transferred into CISA over the last year, he said.
Gottumukkala’s initial remarks last month confused lawmakers and other observers because the transfer orders were underway after he joined CISA in May of last year.
A December 2025 staffing chart provided to the House Homeland Security Committee shows 27 people were transferred into CISA and 65 were assigned out of CISA. Nextgov/FCW has asked the agency to clarify if more inbound and outbound reassignments have occurred since the end of last year.
The reassignments have been a flashpoint for some lawmakers because they raised concerns that experienced cyber staff were being shifted away from CISA while cyber threats from China and others continue targeting U.S. networks and critical infrastructure.
Gottumukkala is facing scrutiny over a handful of developments concerning his tenure, including a failed counterintelligence polygraph exam, the cancelled transfer of a well-liked agency Chief Information Officer and, more recently, news that he uploaded sensitive agency documents into a public-facing version of ChatGPT. Politico first reported those incidents.
The Trump administration’s permanent pick to lead the agency, Sean Plankey, was renominated last month, though holds from Senate lawmakers, including one tied to broader management of DHS, is delaying progress on moving the vote through the high chamber.