104 Republicans Vote To Keep A Raise For CISA In Appropriations Bill

On the same day the U.S. Supreme Court greenlit the Biden regime’s censorship of Americans via social media, 104 Republicans voted to keep a raise for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — which has been described as the “nerve center” of the government’s censorship activities — in this year’s military appropriations bill.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde offered an amendment to the 2025 Department of Defense Appropriations Act that would keep funding for CISA at its 2024 level — effectively decreasing the budgeted amount in the bill by a little more than 2 percent.

The current appropriations legislation provides $2,437,285,000 to CISA. The amendment would have — on Page 43, line 11 of the appropriations bill — struck “the first dollar amount and insert $2,379,485,000.”

During a speech on the House floor, Clyde chided CISA for its censorship activities, saying the agency does not need more funds to support unconstitutional operations.

“CISA’s bloated budget and the agency’s increased weaponization mission to police free speech has gone on simultaneously,” Clyde said. “Given extraordinary increases in funding, CISA has used taxpayer dollars to censor Americans and target speech that they find disagreeable.”

“Flatfundng CISA for FY 25 is simply putting them on notice … to get their attention and cease the weaponization of this agency,” Clyde continued.

Nevertheless, 104 Republican legislators helped Democrats vote down the amendment.

The vote came on the same day the Supreme Court issued its 6-3 decision in Murthy v. Missouri, which allowed the Biden administration to continue working with Big Tech to shut down free speech. The administration can now continue these efforts in the months leading up to the 2024 election.

Clyde also recently reintroduced the Free Speech Defense Act, which would, among other things, revoke federal funding for any “entities that classify — or support the classification of — speech as misinformation or disinformation, as well as for entities that direct or instruct the censorship of protected speech,” according to Clyde’s office. That would include CISA.

The legislation was originally introduced in December of 2022 but it was similarly shot down by 109 Republicans this past September.

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CISA’s History of Censorship

CISA was originally formed under the auspices of protecting “the Nation’s critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats.” But what it actually has been doing is colluding with Big Tech companies to throttle the spread of free speech it doesn’t like — even if it’s factually true.

CISA even punishes Americans for what it calls “malinformation,” that is, true information the agency says is “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” As CISA Director Jen Easterly explained it, the agency wants to secure the public’s “cognitive infrastructure.”

In 2020, CISA chose to classify as “disinformation” and flag for censorship social media posts highlighting concerns related to unsupervised mail-in voting. Internally, however, CISA was aware ahead of the 2020 election of the risks associated with unsupervised mail-in voting, as documents obtained by America First Legal show. The agency even created a six-point list by October 2020 warning of the risks to the large-scale mail-in voting process. Internal communications also showed CISA was aware of “major challenges” with absentee voting such as “high numbers of improperly completed ballots.”

Still, CISA worked with consulting firm Deloitte and asked them to notify CISA about social media trends related to “Vote-By-Mail” narratives and to flag those posts for “CISA’s awareness and attention,” according to AFL.

What’s In Store Ahead Of November?

Thanks to feckless Republicans in Congress and an anti-speech ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, CISA has the green light to continue its censorship activities.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania, a key battleground state where the 2020 election was marred by administration issues, has partnered with CISA in what it describes as an attempt to “mitigate threats to the election process” and “combat misinformation.” The Keystone State would work with CISA to “open lines of communication and share intelligence among the included government agencies,” the Pennsylvania Department of State revealed to The Federalist.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan launched an inquiry into the state’s coordination with CISA following The Federalist’s reporting.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.