Acting Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Madhu Gottumukkala denied failing a polygraph test, pushing back on claims during his testimony before a congressional panel on Wednesday.
Gottumukkala told House Homeland Security Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., that he did not fail a polygraph test administered by six agency officials, as first reported by Politico. That test was administered after Gottumukkala requested access to highly sensitive cyber intelligence information.
“I do not accept the premise of the characterization, and I’m not going to discuss the testing outcomes or issues [that] are handled through the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) adjudication processes, which are currently underway,” Gottumukkala said.
“You’re in a very sensitive area, and CISA is important to us, and I think we need to have people who are in that space that pass the standard test,” Thompson told Gottumukkala, adding that he will pursue the matter later.
According to Politico reporting, Gottumukkala sought to suspend the six CISA officials who administered the test on the premise that the test wasn’t necessary. He also attempted to fire Robert Costello, the agency’s chief information officer (CIO).
When asked whether Gottumukkala attempted to fire Costello, he responded that “personnel matters are not made in a vacuum … we work according to how we see the roles fit,” and did not confirm or deny that he attempted to oust the CIO.
Gottumukkala also fronted questions from both parties on workforce cuts. Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., questioned CISA’s authority to lead major agency workforce reorganization and layoff efforts without alerting Congress.
“I have said it publicly, I know a lot of other members on this committee have said publicly, that any organizational restructuring … should be done so in coordination with Congress,” Garbarino said, citing reported planned reorganization efforts at CISA.
Gottumukkala told Garbarino there are no planned reorganizations and instead that “CISA is a young agency” and that the agency is “continuing to [look] at how we rescope our existing work that we have and so that we can get back on our mission of protecting the critical infrastructure.” The official added that any future efforts will be communicated to Congress.
He also told the panel that CISA has “the staff that we need for the mission that we want” and is using its hiring authorities to make sure the agency has “the right skills and the right talent” that it needs.
Thompson pointed to an internal November memo from Gottumukkala that said the agency was facing major vacancies and said that the numbers provided by the official before Congress were inconsistent with that internal memo.
The official told the panel that CISA’s latest head count from last month was 2,389, down from 3,300 in January 2025 and down from the 2,540 workers the agency had in May. The internal memo suggested larger staffing gaps, Thompson said.
On hiring, Gottumukkala told the panel in his opening remarks that CISA is focusing on acquiring “the right workforce, not a larger one, but a more capable and a skilled one.”
“In 2026, CISA will continue targeted hiring in mission-critical roles while remaining aligned to the broader efforts to control costs and maximize return under President [Donald] Trump’s leadership and Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s guidance,” he said.
In a joint explanatory statement from Congress on its minibus funding package, lawmakers said Tuesday they are providing $20 million to hire additional federal staff to critical positions within CISA.
Specifically, the document said that CISA must “maintain a workforce consistent with the personnel and FTE [full-time employees] funded by the pay and non-pay amounts provided in this Act,” and “not reduce staffing in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to effectively carry out its statutory missions.”