The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday proposed a new public-private critical infrastructure collaboration system to replace a framework that President Donald Trump eliminated weeks after returning to office.
The Alliance of National Councils for Homeland Operational Resilience – Critical Infrastructure (ANCHOR-CI) will serve as an umbrella system for a group of advisory councils composed of critical infrastructure operators, government officials and “organizations with direct responsibility for cybersecurity and critical infrastructure security and resilience activities,” according to a DHS filing set to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.
DHS said ANCHOR-CI would “provide forums through which cybersecurity, law enforcement, intelligence, national security, and other government representatives at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels may engage representatives of private sector entities and critical infrastructure owners and operators in reviewing the current threat environment, discussing potential vulnerabilities, and forming recommendations on securing a more resilient critical infrastructure and cyberspace.”
The new system replaces the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC), which the Trump administration abruptly terminated in March 2025. That decision frustrated and alarmed critical infrastructure operators who soon saw their partnerships with federal agencies deteriorate. The administration offered little explanation for eliminating CIPAC beyond vague statements about how it was not flexible enough for the modern threat environment. Many cybersecurity experts said the decision endangered national security.
Under the new ANCHOR-CI framework, critical infrastructure operators and their government partners can establish four types of councils: sector-specific councils, including sector coordinating councils (SCCs) composed of leading infrastructure operators and trade associations and government coordinating councils (GCCs) composed of the federal, state and local agencies responsible for overseeing and assisting those infrastructure providers; cross-sector councils designed to address interdependencies between categories of infrastructure; industry councils for industries that span multiple sectors; and regional councils for geographically focused resilience partnerships.
The regional council option reflects the Trump administration’s desire to push more cybersecurity resilience responsibilities to the state and local level, a trend that has unsettled infrastructure operators who say local governments are unprepared to respond to sophisticated hacking threats.
DHS’s filing explained the regional councils by arguing that “security and resilience is most effectively owned and managed at the state and local levels and is supported by an accessible and efficient federal government.” The department said the councils must “ensure access and representation by critical infrastructure entities in rural areas.”
Filling a stark coordination void
On the surface, the new system appears very similar to CIPAC. That framework, established in 2006, created the SCC and GCC structures and served as the basis for nearly two decades of joint government-industry efforts to anticipate, plan for and defend against emerging security risks. It also exempted SCC and GCC meetings from federal transparency rules, allowing government and industry representatives to privately discuss sensitive security issues.
Since CIPAC’s demise, infrastructure operators and their trade associations have urged DHS to quickly replace the system with something equally or more robust. Several industry representatives previously told Cybersecurity Dive that their sectors had stopped discussing some sensitive issues with the government in the absence of CIPAC’s protections.
Plans for ANCHOR-CI coalesced at the beginning of 2026, but leadership turmoil at DHS delayed the system’s approval.
Management and time frame
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will manage ANCHOR-CI’s councils, including approving proposed members and appointing additional members as the agency sees fit. The councils must include representative cross-sections of their respective communities, DHS said, including members of different sizes and geographic locations.
DHS is establishing ANCHOR-CI for an initial period of two years, but the system can be renewed for unlimited additional two-year terms.
