TSA head who oversaw pipeline cyber rules pushed out by Trump
An internal memo circulated by multiple outlets said that Pekoske’s time as TSA administrator ended at noon on Monday as Donald Trump was sworn into the presidency. CNN first reported the news of his departure.
An incoming Trump TSA official declined to comment, while a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, where TSA is housed, did not return a request for comment.
Pekoske was first appointed during Trump’s first term in 2017 and was confirmed for a second, five-year appointment to the role in 2022. The request that he step down cuts that second term short.
Very recently, Pekoske oversaw a November notice of proposed rulemaking that would require a slew of pipeline, freight railroad and passenger railroad owners and operators to establish cybersecurity risk management programs that aim to help the surface transportation landscape respond to digital incidents.
It followed earlier rounds of TSA cybersecurity rules under Pekoske, born out of the 2021 Colonial Pipeline hack that motivated the former Biden administration to invigorate the U.S. cyber posture. That proposed rulemaking is still open for public feedback for about another two weeks.
In 2021, TSA also issued pipeline security directives in response to the hack, and continued to renew them in years following. Those directives required pipeline owners and operators to submit cyber incident response plans and cybersecurity assessment plans to TSA, among other things.
Trump and his allies have vowed to roll back regulations across the government. It’s not entirely clear how that would look in the federal cybersecurity realm, which, for the past few years, has been blanketed by a slew of Biden-era rules seeking to create legal incentives to protect U.S. networks from criminal hackers and nation-state cyber operatives.
Trump’s nominee to be homeland security secretary — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem — said last week that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, also housed in DHS, needs to be smaller and more nimble, and should ditch its recent efforts to counter mis- and disinformation online.
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