The House Appropriations Committee (HAC) on Wednesday said it is proposing a $39.3 billion discretionary budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in FY ’16, $2.1 billion less than the Obama administration requested.
The pending House bill, which will be marked up Thursday by the committee’s Homeland Security panel, increases acquisition funding for the Coast Guard but doesn’t include funds for a ninth National Security Cutter (NSC) for the service as is being proposed by Senate appropriators. The Coast Guard’s plan has been to acquire eight high-endurance NSCs and then shift its attention to acquiring a new medium endurance fleet of cutters called the Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC).
The NSC is built by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] in Mississippi, the home state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman (SAC) Thad Cochran (R), who campaigned last year on extending the program beyond the current program of record. Senate appropriators are recommending $640 million for the ninth NSC.
Still, the HAC HS bill proposes $1.3 billion in acquisition funding for the Coast Guard, $284 million above the request, with funds included for detailed design of the OPC, another Lockheed Martin [LMT] HC-130J patrol aircraft, and more small response boats. The DHS budget request doesn’t include the OPC design funds but department and Coast Guard officials this year have been saying that they only need congressional authority to reprogram the necessary funding, about $70 million, from within the department to the service to keep the design effort on track.
The HAC HS bill would fund six Fast Response Cutters (FRC), as proposed by the administration, which is two more than Senate appropriators have recommended. The short-endurance FRC is currently being built by Bollinger Shipyards but the Coast Guard is recompeting production for the final 26 vessels of the planned 58 to be acquired.
Overall, the HAC HS bill proposes $8.5 billion for the Coast Guard in discretionary spending, $360.8 million more than requested and $133.7 million above FY ’15 levels. In addition to the increase for acquisition, the bill is seeking more funds for operations and training, aviation and cutter hours, depot maintenance, and military personnel.
The $39.3 billion budget proposal by the HAC HS is also less than the $40.2 billion in the SAC version of the Homeland Security bill. The House appropriators exclude funds that the administration could use to implement Obama’s executive action on immigration, which so far can’t proceed due to federal court actions.
House appropriators said that their bill cuts funds for a planned pay raise for civilians, cuts another $505 million from the request for staff positions that can’t be filled, denies funding for the ongoing consolidation of DHS headquarters, rejects $301 million for a new climate change program, and rescinds $250.6 million in unobligated balances from various accounts and $1.2 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relieve Fund in unused prior-year funding.
One area of cuts to the overall proposal is to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which would receive $11.1 billion from the House appropriators, $346.8 million below the request but $417.7 million more than provided in FY ’15. Despite the cut, the appropriators are still recommending increases for border security and for air and marine operations.
The border security technology account would receive $439.4 million, $66 million more than the administration requested and Senate appropriators recommended, while the Air and Marine Office would get $784.9 million, $37.5 million more than requested. Senate appropriators recommended $754.6 million for Air and Marine.
The National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) within DHS would receive $1.6 billion from the House appropriators, which appears to be about $60 million less than requested. The committee has yet to provide a detailed look at its recommendations but some of the reduction appears to be in the area of cyber security, for which the panel is recommending $798 million to fund the deployment of the third-generation of the EINSTEIN network defense program and to improve the Federal Network Security program to detect and protect against cyber attacks and foreign espionage.
The administration has requested $818.3 million for cyber security efforts within NPPD and the Senate appropriators have provided $819.8 million.
The House appropriators say their bill also includes funding for NPPD to begin to replace the department’s current automated biometric identification system, which is called IDENT.
For the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the House appropriators recommend nearly $4.7 billion, about $130 million less than requested and about $70 million less than the Senate appropriators proposed. The House appropriators’ proposal is nearly $181 million less than funded in FY ’15.
The House appropriators say their bill requires TSA to “report on how it is addressing vulnerabilities within passenger security screening, equipment, training, and other protocols.” The committee also wants TSA to expand and strengthen its risk-based security initiatives.
In other areas, the bill provides $5.8 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, clipping $157.8 million from the request, and $786.9 million for the Science and Technology Directorate, $8 million more than requested.
“Safeguarding our homeland, strengthening our borders, enforcing our immigration laws, and protecting our people from the threat of terrorism and devastating natural disasters–this is the core mission of this legislation,” Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), HAC chairman, said in a statement. “It will target funds to these areas, making the most of each dollar, while trimming back programs that are lower priority or that have not proven productive. And the bill holds the department’s feet to the fire through strong oversight measures to ensure that it is following congressional directives, spending wisely, and providing strong enforcement of our laws.”