Andrew Garbarino was named chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee in July — just don’t tell him that.

Between the traditional August recess and the record-long government shutdown “it feels like it’s only been a month,” the New York Republican joked on Tuesday at a Washington, D.C., event hosted by Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. He most recently chaired a contentious hearing dominated by immigration policy.

In his most extensive public remarks on cybersecurity issues since receiving the committee gavel, Garabarino — who previously was chairman of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee — weighed in on several digital topics facing the country, and his panel, now and into 2026. 

Here are the highlights:

Legislation

It is “imperative” for policymakers to pass a long-term renewal of the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, Garbarino told the audience. 

The program went dark when the government shuttered but was given a new, short lease on life with the latest federal funding stopgap.

He acknowledged that some, including the White House, want a “clean,” 10-year reauthorization of the effort but “I don't know if I can get that passed in the House” due to some conservatives linking it to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its past battles against online disinformation.

“I don't know how it gets done on its own. I feel like we have to attach it to other must-pass legislation, whether that's government funding. But we need it passed.”

Garbarino also urged the Senate to renew a cyber grant program meant to help state and local governments that sailed through the House last month. 

“We’d love to see the Senate move that.”

National Cyber Strategy

The Trump administration is expected to release its national cyber strategy next month and Garbarino said he believes  “there should be more of a focus on offensive cyber.”

“I have colleagues on my committee who would love to see companies … hack back and companies in the private sector do this, since they're the ones being attacked. I'm not sure industry wants to be the ones who are actually doing it,” he told the audience. Bloomberg reported this week that the cyber strategy could call for the government to enlist private companies in offensive cyber operations against foreign adversaries.

“I’m really interested in seeing how the cyber strategy focuses on offensive capabilities, sort of what the plan would be there” as well as regulatory harmonization and recruiting people into the cyber workforce, Garbarino said.

“We have to focus on all these things if we want to be successful in our cyberdefense.”

Typhoon update

Garbarino said his panel continues its quest to get more information from the Homeland Security Department and others about the federal government’s response to Chinese state-backed hacking groups tracked as Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon.

“It’s still moving but we don’t have pen-to-paper yet,” he said.

“We've sent some follow-up questions and we're waiting for that to get back,” he added, noting they had been submitted two or three months ago.

Garbarino noted he was working with the House Select Committee on China about potential legislative solutions to hedge against such malicious campaigns in the future.

“We’re not there yet. We know we’re running out of time,” he said, alluding to the congressional calendar. 

The GOP lawmaker also took issue with the recent vote by the Federal Communications Commission to reverse cyber rules adopted after the Salt Typhoon attack.

"I'm not sure I would have voted to get rid of some of the rules.”

AI

Garbarino said he is "looking forward” to a hearing two House Homeland subcommittees will hold on Wednesday that was slated after artificial intelligence company Anthropic shared that Chinese hackers used the firm’s Claude Code tool to conduct cyberattacks on companies and government agencies around the globe.

“We need to make this a bigger issue so Congress understands what we're dealing with here and with these technologies,” he said of the first reported case of a fully automated digital assault.

“I got to get these experts in here to talk about what is happening out there in the world,” Garbarino added. “The average age of Congress is like 75 or whatever … I'm really looking forward to the information that is going to come out of it and then hopefully we can take that ball and run with it.”