Former NSA official says federal worker cuts will have ‘devastating impact’ on cyber and national security

Former top U.S. cybersecurity official Rob Joyce told lawmakers on Wednesday that cuts to federal probationary employees will have a “devastating impact” on U.S. national security.

Joyce, who was the director of cybersecurity for the National Security Agency until retiring in 2024, was providing testimony to the U.S. House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which is investigating a broad hacking campaign by China targeting the U.S. government in recent years.

“I want to raise my grave concerns that the aggressive threats to cut U.S. government probationary employees will have a devastating impact on the cybersecurity and our national security,” said Joyce.

Probationary staff are federal employees with less than a year of government service. Since taking office, the Trump administration has attempted to dismiss nearly all probationary workers. A federal court has since temporarily blocked the mass-firings.

Joyce told the committee that eliminating probationary federal employees “will destroy a pipeline of top talent responsible for hunting and eradicating [China-backed] threats.”