Senate committee postpones meeting to consider key cyber nominations

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee postponed its business meeting today in which lawmakers were scheduled to consider advancing the nomination of Sean Cairncross to be national cyber director.

The meeting agenda also had included the nomination of Sean Plankey to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, even though Plankey did not testify alongside other nominees at last week’s committee hearing.

At publication time, no reason had been given for today’s postponement and the meeting had not been rescheduled to a new date.

At the June 5 hearing, Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-Mich.) objected to what he called a “rushed process” for senators to weigh Cairncross and other nominees for “positions of great influence to deliver critical services to the American people.” Nominees submitted their opening statements in writing and senators moved directly into their questions. Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said senators would have a week to review the written statements.

Plankey’s withdrawal from that hearing was reportedly attributed to delays in his security clearance process.

In April, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) placed a hold on Plankey’s nomination, demanding that CISA release “an important, unclassified report by independent cybersecurity experts” on telecommunications security.

Cairncross, former CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and former COO at the Republican National Committee, was nominated by President Donald Trump in February to the executive branch role that has been vacant since former National Cyber Director Harry Coker left at the end of the Biden administration.

Cairncross told senators last week that attacks against the United States are “scaling up” and increasing in sophistication, underscoring the need for enhanced security collaboration between the government and the private sector as well as impactful costs for bad actors.