On the recordJune 26, 2024
Mr. Chair, today, I am offering an amendment to flat fund the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also known as CISA, to keep it at the FY24 enacted level saving $57.8 million. On CISA's website, the mission reads: ``We lead the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to our cyber and physical infrastructure.'' Unfortunately, CISA has strayed far from this mission. Two years ago, CISA was part of the infamous Disinformation Governance Board, which was established at the Department of Homeland Security to censor Americans' free speech. While the so-called Disinformation Governance Board was rightfully disbanded a few months later after enormous public outcry, many will be shocked to learn that CISA has not stopped monitoring and censoring Americans' free speech. According to a 2022 news report: CISA drafted plans to target ``inaccurate information'' on a wide range of topics, including the origins of COVID-19, the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, racial justice, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine. Also, business records released by Twitter suggest that CISA distorted its mission from protecting the Nation's critical cyber and physical infrastructure into controlling what Americans can say and what speech is acceptable online. This is terrible. Americans' First Amendment should not be regulated or controlled through government by proxy censorship.…





