Despite what they say is an overall good request, key Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday told the Secretary of Homeland Security that his department’s budget submission for FY ’16 will likely be pared back.
Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), chairman of House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, said the $41.2 billion request for discretionary spending, which is $1.7 billion above the FY ’15 enacted level, “absorbs almost 75 percent of the non-defense discretionary available under the limits of the Budget Control Act of 2013. Mr. Secretary, the Congress intends to live within the confines of the law even if this administration does not. As a result, I doubt DHS will rise as steeply as the request proposes.”
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the full committee, also expressed doubt that the request would be fully funded.
“Unfortunately the president’s budget request government wide is billions of dollars above the level of our committee that we will ultimately be allocated to support non-defense discretionary spending and is supported by unrealistic tax increases that the president knows are DOA here in Congress,” Rogers said. “That’s not responsible budgeting and I question whether your recommended level is possible given all of the domestic priorities at stake.”
Rogers, who previously chaired the Homeland Security panel, said he has “few criticisms” of the FY ’16 DHS budget request compared to prior years when requests “were political in nature, not reflective of the security needs confronting the country and chocked full of budget gimmicks that made our job on the appropriations committee needlessly difficult.”
Rogers praised the budget submission for increased funding for front line operations, including supporting staffing mandated numbers of Border Patrol agents, providing for more than 34,000 detention beds for captured illegal immigrants, maintaining relatively level funding for Coast Guard operations, and eliminating most unauthorized fee increases.
Carter told Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson “there’s a lot to like in this request.” He also highlighted priorities in the budget for front line operations and personnel, funding for the detention beds, increases for cyber security, and a focus on preventing terrorism, securing the border and national preparedness.
“I believe the proposal is a constructive first step in the appropriations process,” Carter said.
Thursday’s hearing was the first by Congress to review the DHS FY ’16 budget request.
Rogers and Carter both outlined several concerns they have with the request in addition to the expectation that it will have to be scaled back. Rogers noted that the budget proposal includes a 17 percent reduction in Coast Guard spending for acquisitions “when we need more cutters out there” and a 3 percent cut for the service’s operations. “Why” are these cuts being proposed? he asked Johnson.
Johnson replied that a “revamping” of the Coast Guard’s surface fleet is underway and that the overall top line request for the service is lower due to “greater efficiencies achieved with the new fleet.”
Rogers, unconvinced, said, “I beg to differ with you on that. I think we are short-changing a very important part of Homeland Security when we do not capitalize the needs of the Coast Guard.”
Rogers, Carter and other Republicans on the subcommittee also criticized the Obama administration’s executive order late last year that temporarily defers deportation actions on certain classes of illegal immigrants. Congressional Republicans tried and failed this year to gut portions of the DHS FY ’15 budget request related to these immigration actions.