Kaine Questions CYBERCOM Commander On The Impact Of Trump’s Proposed Shutdown On Cyber Command’s Mission

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine questioned Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) Admiral Mike Rogers on how a government shutdown would impact CYBERCOM’s mission. Last week, President Trump announced on Twitter that he supports a government shutdown in September, saying the country needs a “good” shutdown in the fall.

“There has been some debate in the last couple of days about whether there is such a thing as a “good shutdown” of the United States government,” Kaine said during today’s hearing. “Can you see any circumstance under which Cyber Command’s mission would be benefitted by a shutdown of the government of the United States?

“No,” Admiral Rogers responded. “The number one issue that my workforce often raises with me is what we went through in 2013, and it’s now four years later. Still, every time there is the merest hint in the media of this potentiality, I get: ‘Sir, are we going through this again?’ ‘Sir, you said this wasn’t going to happen.’ ‘I thought they were committed to our mission.’ ‘Sir, I don’t want to work in an environment where every couple of years I’m just getting jerked around about am I coming to work and getting paid.’ ‘Do they value what I do?’ Senator, we just want to do the mission, we just need the support to keep moving forward.”

With 170,000 federal employees in Virginia, and countless other Virginians who would be directly and indirectly harmed by a shutdown, Kaine promised on the Senate floor last week that he will fight against President Trump’s shutdown threat in September and throughout the remainder of Trump’s term.

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