Rand Paul says he wants to eliminate cybersecurity agency but will likely reorganize it instead

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Thursday said he would like to eliminate the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the next Congress, but will likely need to reorganize it instead because of a lack of support.

Paul is expected to oversee the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in January now that Republicans have flipped control of the upper chamber. The committee has congressional jurisdiction over the agency.

Republicans, including Paul, have criticized the agency in recent years because of its alleged effort to censor reports regarding the 2020 presidential election. Paul claimed the agency has tried to censor conservative voices on social media for political reasons, which would infringe on free speech, but the agency has rejected the allegations.

“I’d like to eliminate [CISA],” Paul told Politico. “The First Amendment is pretty important, that’s why we listed it as the First Amendment, and I would have liked to, at the very least, eliminate their ability to censor content online.”

Paul admitted that he does not expect to see widespread support for abolishing CISA, but said he would be open to reforming it instead. The senator said that some ways it could be reorganized are by having more hearings over its alleged meetings with social media companies during the 2024 election cycle.

“I think a lot of what they do is intrusive, and I’d like to end their intrusions into the First Amendment," Paul said. “There needs to be more scrutiny, and we will have hearings where [CISA officials] will have to come in and defend the meetings that they were having with social media [companies]."

House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, on Thursday admitted that the future of the agency was questionable but expressed support for keeping it intact. 

“CISA has in my opinion done a good job in defending the .gov domain, and it’s not the first time that I’ve heard that there is some opposition, but you’ve got to have it somewhere," Thompson told the outlet. 

The Democrat added that if the agency is abolished then there should be a new means for countering misinformation.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.