A significant portion of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) budget is not fully reflected in the net discretionary spending level of the annual DHS appropriations act. Some components, such as the Transportation Security Administration, rely on fee income or offsetting collections to support a significant amount of their activities. Less than 4% of the budget for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is provided through the annual appropriations act—the rest is derived from fee income.
Figure 1 highlights the range of funding mechanisms that support the overall DHS budget and provides a visual comparison of their relative size. It presents a breakdown of the Administration's FY2016 budget request, showing the discretionary appropriations subject to the discretionary spending limits, discretionary spending funded through fees, discretionary spending not subject to discretionary spending limits due to special designation under the Budget Control Act (BCA), and appropriated mandatory spending. All of these mechanisms rely on the appropriations process to provide budget authority to the department. A separated wedge shows the amount of resources to be provided outside the annual appropriations process, through mandatory spending, trust funds and user fees. The amounts shown in this graphic are derived from the Obama Administration's budget request documents, and therefore do not exactly mirror the data presented in congressional documents, which are the source for most of the other data presented in CRS reports on appropriations measures.
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Figure 1. DHS Gross Budget Breakdown: FY2016 Request (millions of dollars of budget authority, rounded) |
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Source: CRS analysis of the FY2016 DHS congressional justifications. Notes: BCA = the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25). Amounts may not sum to totals due to rounding. Includes rescissions of prior-year budget authority. The amounts shown in this graph are derived from the Administration's budget request documents, and therefore do not exactly mirror the data presented in congressional documents, which are the source for most of the other data presented in CRS reports on appropriations measures. |
This range of different funding mechanisms contributing to the DHS budget is not a new development. From the establishment of the department in the middle of FY2003, when the initial resources for the department were provided via transfer, DHS has been dependent in part on resources provided beyond its funding stream subject to the annual appropriations process.
Figure 2 provides a historical breakdown of the actual spending reported by DHS in its budget documentation, outlining the same categories as above, plus the impact of supplemental appropriations, from the first full year appropriation for the department (FY2004) through the most recently completed fiscal year for which data is available (FY2014). While the amount of funding provided for DHS activities outside the appropriations process doubled from FY2004 to FY2014, rising by roughly $4.7 billion, this was not the primary factor in the growth of the DHS budget. Annual discretionary appropriations, not including fee-funded discretionary spending or spending exempt from discretionary spending limits under the BCA, rose roughly $15.8 billion over the same time period.
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Figure 2. DHS Budget Breakdown, Actual, FY2004-FY2014 (budget authority) |
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Source: CRS analysis of DHS Budget in Brief documents from FY2006 to FY2016. Notes: BCA = the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25). Does not include rescissions of prior-year budget authority. The amounts shown in this graph is derived from the Administration's budget request documents, and therefore do not exactly mirror the data presented in congressional documents, which are the source for most of the other data presented in CRS reports on appropriations measures. |