Department of Homeland Security Appropriations: FY2026 State of Play

Introduction

FY2026 marks the 23^rd annual appropriations cycle with a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations measure. For the 17^th time in the history of DHS, resolution of annual appropriations for the department occurred more than a month after the beginning of the fiscal year. FY2026 also contained the two longest lapses in annual appropriations for DHS.

This report is a quick reference for tracking the status of FY2026 DHS appropriations.

For more in-depth analyses of the FY2026 DHS appropriations request and the congressional responses, see

• CRS Report R48704, Understanding the FY2026 DHS Budget Request, by William L. Painter; and
• CRS Report R48705, Department of Homeland Security Appropriations: FY2026 Provisions, by William L. Painter.

Summary: FY2026 DHS Appropriations Status

As of the date of publication:

Annual appropriations were enacted on April 30, 2026 (P.L. 119-86). A brief summary of the FY2026 process follows:

• The House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 4213, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, on June 24, 2025, by a vote of 36-27.
• The Senate Appropriations Committee did not mark up a version of a Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, although the committee majority released a draft bill and report on December 19, 2025.¹
• A lapse in appropriations began on October 1, 2025, and was temporarily resolved by the enactment of P.L. 119-37 on November 12, 2025, which included a continuing resolution (CR) that covered much of the government, including DHS, through January 30, 2026.²
• The House passed H.R. 7147, a compromise version of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, on January 22, 2026, by a vote of 220-207. The measure was included in a consolidated appropriations act (H.R. 7148, as engrossed in the House), but was stripped out by the Senate and replaced with a two-week CR extension. A brief second lapse in appropriations occurred until the consolidated measure was enacted on February 3, 2026 (P.L. 119-75).
• A third lapse in appropriations occurred when the CR extension expired on February 14, 2026, and DHS annual appropriations lapsed again.
• The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-86, Division A), was enacted on April 30, 2026, funding all of DHS except for the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Funding for USBP and ICE through FY2029 was enacted on June 10, 2026 through a reconciliation measure (P.L. 119-98).

Some advance supplemental appropriations provided in prior-year legislation became available at the beginning of FY2026.

• See "Advance Appropriations: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" for details on advance appropriations.

The FY2025 reconciliation package (P.L. 119-21) included multi-year funding for several elements of DHS. The FY2026 reconciliation law (P.L. 119-98) provided funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (including USBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as other purposes (P.L. 119-98).

• See "Reconciliation Funding" for details on the additional funding from FY2025.
• See "Further Reconciliation Funding" for details on the additional funding provided in the FY2026 reconciliation law.

DHS Appropriations Timing

Figure 1 shows a history of the timing of the annual Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, since its first development in 2003 (for FY2004). Tracked actions include

• the release of the budget request (green dot);
• full committee markups and passage of the House and Senate versions of the bill (orange and purple bars, respectively); and
• enactment of the measure (black bar).

Dotted lines show the months covered by CRs. Beige segments indicate lapses in annual appropriations.

In six of the first seven years of its existence, the annual appropriations measure for DHS was enacted within a month of the beginning of the fiscal year it covered. Since FY2010, no annual DHS appropriations measure has been enacted before two months of the fiscal year it covered had passed, and in thirteen of those sixteen years, three months had passed before DHS annual appropriations were enacted.

The lapse in DHS appropriations that began in February was the longest such lapse in the history of the department. The partial funding of the department through the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, as well as the provision of operating funds for CBP and ICE in a reconciliation measure that did not go through the appropriations committee were both unprecedented actions.

Figure 1. DHS Appropriations Process Timing, FY2004-FY2026 (As of April 30, 2026)

Source: CRS analysis of Administration budget request release dates and legislative action from Congress.gov. Notes: * The FY2026 DHS appropriations act resolved the lapse in appropriations for most of DHS, with the exception of the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Final action on annual appropriations for FY2011, FY2013-FY2015, FY2017-FY2019, FY2022, and FY2024-FY2026 occurred after the beginning of the new calendar year. The FY2019 lapse began in December 2018. Two short lapses in January of FY2018 and a two-day lapse from January 31 to February 2, 2026, are not displayed due to limitations of scale.

The FY2026 DHS Appropriations Process

President's Budget Request

On May 2, 2025, President Donald Trump's Administration released its budget request for FY2026, including $107.4 billion in budget authority for DHS, $63.6 billion of which was discretionary appropriations, and $43.8 billion of which was from the mandatory resources to be provided in the FY2025 reconciliation act. According to DHS budget documents, the request included $63.65 billion in base discretionary appropriations, and $26.47 billion in disaster relief-designated funds.³

The FY2026 discretionary appropriations request was $1.56 billion less than the Administration's estimate of a full-year continuing resolution. In addition to this total, the Administration included a placeholder for $43.75 billion in spending from reconciliation funds. However, the budget request was released while Congress was still debating the reconciliation package, which would ultimately be enacted as P.L. 119-21.

For more information on the Administration's request, and its relationship to the reconciliation package please see CRS Report R48704, Understanding the FY2026 DHS Budget Request, by William L. Painter.

The following two subsections address funding that was available to DHS for FY2026 prior to action on the annual DHS appropriations measure: advance appropriations through P.L. 117-58, and (as noted above) P.L. 119-21.

Advance Appropriations: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

On November 15, 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law as P.L. 117-58. Division J of the IIJA included a number of supplemental appropriations, including a total of $7.96 billion for DHS in Title V. Four appropriations received $6.1 billion of that total, with $1.22 billion available in FY2022, and $4.88 billion to be made available incrementally from FY2022 through FY2026, through what are known as advance appropriations.⁴ $1.02 billion of those advance appropriations became available in FY2026.

Table 1 lists DHS accounts with advance appropriations provided by P.L. 117-58, and includes a breakdown of amounts coming available each fiscal year, with FY2026 highlighted.

FY2025 Reconciliation Package

The President signed the FY2025 reconciliation package into law (P.L. 119-21 ) on July 4, 2025. The law included $191.02 billion in mandatory budget authority for DHS—the largest single package of DHS appropriations ever enacted. This included $168.96 billion for six DHS components and $22.06 billion directed to DHS activities through the Secretary. In total, this was almost double the gross level of budget authority provided to all of DHS in the FY2024 annual appropriations process.

Component-specific funding was provided for

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—$64.73 billion, including

• $46.55 billion for border infrastructure and wall system;⁵
• $6.17 billion for a range of border security, technology, and screening operational and procurement costs;⁶
• $4.1 billion for hiring additional agents, officers, and support personnel;⁷
• $2.05 billion for recruitment bonuses, performance awards, and retention bonuses;⁸
• $0.86 billion for vehicles;⁹ and
• $5 billion for CBP facilities.¹⁰

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—$74.85 billion, including

• $45 billion for detention capacity;¹¹ and
• $29.85 billion for a range of operational and procurement costs.¹²

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)—$24.59 billion for procurement and certain maintenance costs.¹³

U.S. Secret Service (USSS)—$1.17 billion for "additional United States Secret Service resources," including a newly authorized set of performance, retention and signing bonuses.¹⁴

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—$12.88 billion, including

• $0.5 billion for State and local capabilities to detect, identify, track, or monitor threats from unmanned aircraft systems;
• $0.63 billion for security and other costs related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup;
• $1.0 billion for security, planning, and other costs related to the 2028 Olympics;
• $0.45 billion for the Operation Stonegarden Grant Program;¹⁵
• $0.30 billion to reimburse law enforcement costs for support requested by the U.S. Secret Service in protecting presidential residences;¹⁶ and
• $10 billion for a "State Border Security Reinforcement Fund," which provides grants to states for border barrier construction and related activities, certain counter-smuggling activities, and relocation of undocumented aliens.¹⁷

Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC)—$0.75 billion, including

• $0.29 billion for supporting training activities; and
• $0.47 billion for facilities.¹⁸

The bill also provided $12.06 billion to the Office of the Secretary for a variety of purposes, the largest of which was $10 billion "for reimbursement of costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the [DHS] mission to safeguard the borders of the United States."¹⁹

The other $2.06 billion was provided for

• Hiring and training of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and support staff (in addition to what was included for these purposes elsewhere in the measure) "to carry out immigration enforcement activities";
• Transportation and related costs associated with the departure or removal of aliens;
• Assignment of DHS employees and State officers to carry out immigration enforcement activities;
• Hiring additional staff for screening and vetting of aliens;
• Certain activities related to alien children, including criminal and gang checks and removal;
• Transporting and return of aliens from contiguous territory;
• State and local participation in certain homeland security efforts;
• Certain types of removal of criminal aliens; and
• Information technology investments to support immigration-related activities.²⁰

The Administration's public discussion of the plans for specific spending of the resources provided in P.L. 119-21 has been limited. Before the bill was enacted, the Administration projected that $43.75 billion would be spent from the reconciliation package funding in FY2026, broken down by general issue areas, rather than by component and appropriation (see Table 2).²¹

Table 3 shows newer, more detailed projections of FY2026 obligations that were part of the FY2027 President's budget request by component and appropriation. Even without projections for U.S. Secret Service obligations, the estimated level of total obligations for DHS components rose to $109.75 billion.

House Action

On June 24, 2025, the House Committee on Appropriations (HAC) marked up H.R. 4213, its version of the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026. H.Rept. 119-173 was filed on June 26, 2025, providing additional direction to DHS, and including minority party views. HAC-reported H.R. 4213 included $72.61 billion in discretionary budget authority, and $26.47 billion designated as being for the costs of major disasters. This was roughly $1.47 billion above the level requested by the Administration (leaving aside the reconciliation funding and disaster relief funding) and $1.13 billion above the FY2025 enacted amount.

Senate Committee Action

The Senate Committee on Appropriations (SAC) did not mark up a version of the FY2026 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.

On December 19, 2025, the SAC released a committee draft of the FY2026 bill, along with a draft report.²² The committee draft included $72.46 billion in discretionary budget authority, and $26.37 billion designated as being for the costs of major disasters.

Continuing Resolutions and Lapses in Appropriations for DHS

Congress did not pass an FY2026 DHS annual appropriations measure before the beginning of the fiscal year, a continuing resolution was not enacted, and annual appropriations lapsed on October 1, 2025. This lapse was resolved by an interim CR (P.L. 119-37) enacted November 12, 2025, lasting through January 30, 2026.²³

On January 22, 2026, the House Rules Committee reported H.Res. 1014. This special rule, adopted by the House, provided for the consideration of a separate consolidated appropriations measure (H.R. 7148; Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026), as well as H.R. 7147, an FY2026 DHS annual appropriations measure that had been worked out by House and Senate negotiators. The DHS appropriations measure passed the House by a vote of 220-207. Pursuant to H.Res. 1014, H.R. 7147 was added to H.R. 7148 as Division H of the measure before it was sent to the Senate for consideration.

On January 30, 2026, the Senate passed an amended version of H.R. 7148, replacing the full-year DHS appropriations in Division H with an interim CR extending through February 13, 2026. After a brief lapse in appropriations from January 31 through February 2, 2026, the House agreed to the Senate amendment to H.R. 7148 by a vote of 217-214 on February 3, 2026, and the President signed the measure into law as P.L. 119-75 on the same day.

In the absence of an extension of the CR or enactment of annual appropriations, DHS appropriations lapsed again on February 14, 2026. The House later passed two FY2026 DHS appropriations measures: H.R. 7744 on March 5, 2026, by a vote of 221-209; and H.R. 8029 on March 26, 2026, by a vote of 218-206. These bills were functionally identical to H.R. 7147, with the exception of removing a provision unrelated to DHS, and adding provisions required to resolve certain shutdown-related administrative matters.²⁴ The Senate passed an amended version of H.R. 7147 by voice vote on March 27, 2026, which did not include funding for the U.S. Border Patrol or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nor directive and oversight provisions related to those entities. The Senate majority indicated they would fund those components through an FY2026 reconciliation package. The House majority did not take up the Senate measure until after the Senate and House had passed the FY2026 budget resolution that was required to begin the reconciliation process. The House took up and passed by a voice vote the Senate-amended bill under suspension of the rules on April 30, 2026. The President signed it into law the same day (P.L. 119-86; Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026).

Further Reconciliation Funding

On June 5, 2026, the Senate passed S. 2, a reconciliation measure pursuant to the FY2026 budget resolution (S.Con.Res. 33) by a vote of 52-47.²⁵ The bill included legislation from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary providing almost $70 billion in funding for CBP and ICE, as well as DHS overall. The funds provided are available for obligation through FY2029. The House passed the bill by a vote of 214-212²⁶ on June 9, 2026, and it was signed into law the next day as P.L. 119-98.

Table 4 provides a breakdown of the resources and purposes provided.

Footnotes