The House of Representatives is expected to take up the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act (H.R. 3354) the week of September 4, 2017. The legislation is a consolidated appropriations bill which contains the text of the eight appropriations bills that were not included in the Make America Secure Appropriations Act (H.R. 3219). The House passed this separate consolidated appropriations bill, which includes the text of the other four appropriations measures, prior to the August work period. Both bills contain appropriations that were part of House Appropriations Committee-reported Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act, 2018 (H.R. 3355): H.R. 3354 will contain most of the FY2018 DHS Appropriations, if the House Rules Committee plan goes forward, while H.R. 3219 included funding for barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border. This insight describes how H.R. 3355 has evolved since it was reported. It serves as a complement to CRS Report R44927, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations: FY2018 and other CRS reports on the subject.

The House Appropriations Committee reported out H.R. 3355 by a vote of 30-22 on July 18, 2017. Among the appropriations in the bill was $2,008,719,000 in a Procurement, Construction, and Improvements appropriation for the DHS's U.S. Customs and Border Protection component (CBP).

On July 26, 2017, H.R. 3219 began consideration under a structured rule (H.Res. 473), making certain amendments in order. The next day, a second rule (H.Res. 478) was adopted, which provided for additional amendments, including one offered by House Appropriations Committee, Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman John Carter. This amendment added Division E to H.R. 3219, which consisted only of a Procurement, Construction and Improvements appropriation for CBP. The appropriation would provide $1,571,239,000 for construction of physical barriers along the Southwestern border of the United States. This funding was specifically directed in the amendment text as follows:

• $784,000,000 for 32 miles of new border bollard fencing in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas;
• $498,000,000 for 28 miles of new bollard levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas;
• $251,000,000 for 14 miles of secondary fencing in San Diego, California; and
• $38,239,000 for planning for border wall construction.

The overall total of $1,571,239,000 and first three amounts were identical to a specific recommendation by the House Committee on Appropriations for border infrastructure construction in H.Rept. 115-239.

Because of the provisions of the rule, which said the amendment was to "be considered as adopted," no separate vote was taken on adoption of the amendment.

An attempt to strike the funding through a motion to recommit the bill failed by a roll call vote, 193-234 (Roll No. 424).

In the second consolidated appropriations bill, the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, H.R. 3355 and seven other committee-reported appropriations bills were combined, with some modifications, in Rules Committee Print 115-31. The bill number for the legislation will be H.R. 3354, which is the Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2018—one of the eight bills to be included in the legislation.

The primary changes to H.R. 3355 from its committee-reported form are a reduction in CBP's Procurement, Construction, and Improvement appropriation to account for the passage by the House of the funding for border barrier planning and construction in H.R. 3219, and the addition of specific legislative direction for the use of the remaining appropriation. The direction is comprehensive, exceeding that provided in the committee report. The bill also includes new general provisions required for inclusion of a stand-alone committee-reported bill in a consolidated appropriations bill and conforming to the likely terms of floor debate.

This Insight will be updated as events warrant.