The House last Thursday night approved a funding bill that provides $62.8 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security, including $2.1 billion toward physical barriers along the southwest border that is not in the DHS bill agreed to by Senate appropriators earlier this year.
The Senate appropriators proposed $61.4 billion in discretionary spending for DHS in fiscal year 2024, which began Sunday, Oct. 1.
As of our press time last Friday evening, the federal government was careening toward a shutdown after House Republicans were unable to muster the votes within their own caucus to keep the government operating under a continuing resolution.
The vote in the House on the DHS bill was 220 to 208, with Democrats Jared Golden (Maine) and Marie Perez (Wash.) joining all Republicans in passing the bill.
The border wall funding could be a major sticking issue between House Republicans and Senate Democrats in any conference on the DHS funding bill although Democrats previously—most recently early in the Trump administration—agreed to appropriate money for physical barriers. However, the bipartisan goodwill was dashed when then President Trump began reprogramming billions of dollars from various spending bills, including the Defense Department, to find more funds for the wall. Since that time, Democrats have had no appetite spending on physical barriers.
For border security technology, the House bill recommends $276 million for new border security technology whereas Senate appropriators agreed to $263.3 million. CBP requested about $230 million for border technology.
The House bill would provide $2 billion for Coast Guard acquisition, including four fast response cutters (FRCs) that were not requested but are on the service’s unfunded priority list. The bill also includes $139 million for a new HC-130J aircraft. Senate appropriators exclude the FRC and HC-130J funding, offering only $1.1 billion for Coast Guard procurement overall. The service is seeking $1.6 billion in FY ’24.
House and Senate appropriators agreed to provide $579 million for the offshore patrol cutter and $150 million for the purchase of a commercially available polar icebreaker.
The House bill would also provide $105.5 million for the Transportation Security Administration’s top acquisition priority, the continued procurement of computed tomography (CT) systems to scan carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints. Senate appropriators zeroed the $70 million request for the checkpoint CT scanners.
At around $100 million in annual appropriations, TSA Administrator David Pekoske has said it will take until 2036 to complete deployments of checkpoint CT systems. At $70 million annually, the full operating capability date would slip to 2042, he said. Pekoske would like between $300 million to $350 million annually for the systems to complete installations in five years.