DOJ Admits ‘Unprecedented’ National Security Staffing Challenges

The Justice Department acknowledged facing “unprecedented” national security workforce constraints due to high turnover compounded by rising overseas threats and new responsibilities, according to a document accompanying its budget proposal.

“Against the backdrop of an increasing case load, the DOJ National Security Division’s counterintelligence and export control section “is facing unprecedented personnel constraints” from a 40% decline in prosecutors, a total that’s dropped from 45 to 27 in the past year and a half, the department said in a submission to Congress supporting the White House budget request. The document was posted on a DOJ website Friday, hours after the White House published its fiscal 2027 government spending request.

Another NSD office that supports the FBI and intelligence community through surveillance requests and other legal tools “experienced significant staffing attrition” in 2025 and is 27 positions below its authorized level, the report added.

The Trump administration sought funding for four additional DOJ national security employees next year compared with its currently enacted level but faces challenges in finding attorneys to fill positions that are already appropriated. NSD is funded at $117 million to support 321 positions for the current fiscal year, a 25% decrease from its authorized level of 434 employees two years earlier.

At a moment when DOJ’s national security staff plays a critical role protecting the US from adversaries such as Iran and China, the document shows President Donald Trump’s impact on the department, including removing multiple veteran NSD officials and other moves that have complicated recruitment efforts.

NSD is tasked with several core Trump administration priorities, such as prosecuting those responsible for the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on US citizens in Israel, combatting foreign terrorist cartels, and applying “maximum pressure” on Iran, according to a separate NSD budget summary Friday laying out its 2027 strategic agenda.

Expanding and rapidly evolving cyber threats by nation-states that form alliances with criminals is enabling “malicious cyber activity to proliferate in ways that have profound national security implications,” the department said in describing one of its NSD performance challenges. “To counter these growing and sophisticated threats, NSD must recruit and hire personnel with preexisting cyber experience who can be dedicated to focus on these issues.”

Further, NSD’s foreign investment review workload keeps rising in volume and complexity, including from taking on the task of implementing Trump’s “America First Investment Policy.”

Terrorist attack threats, which fall under NSD’s prosecution jurisdiction, are also increasing, including an uptick in people in the US expressing a desire to join international terrorist groups or carrying out plots, the department said. The National Security Division works with overseas counterparts to root out such attacks and partners with US attorney’s offices to prosecute perpetrators.

The counterterrorism team within NSD has seen a “sharp increase” in its work identifying classified information in particular cases as a result of the Trump administration’s policy designating cartels and transnational criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations.