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Generally, the homeland security appropriations bill includes all annual appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), providing resources to every departmental component.¹ The following figures show two perspectives on the budget authority for DHS enacted for FY2017² and requested by the Donald Trump Administration for FY2018, as well as the funding levels provided in H.R. 3354, which included the House-passed homeland security appropriations bill, the unnumbered Senate Appropriations Committee draft released on November 21, 2017, and P.L. 115-141, Division F of which was the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2018.

Figure 1 shows total net discretionary appropriations for DHS distributed by departmental component, and ordered from largest to smallest by FY2017 enacted annual funding level. Due to constraints of scale, Figure 1 does not include resources provided through supplemental appropriations.³

In Figure 1, the first column shows (by component) the budget authority provided in P.L. 115-31, which included the FY2017 annual appropriations act for DHS as the first five titles of Division F. Appropriations with the disaster relief or emergency designations (in the case of FEMA) or Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) designation (in the case of the Coast Guard) are shown immediately above the segment for their DHS component with a pattern to distinguish them from net discretionary appropriations. The second column shows a similar breakdown by component for the FY2018 request, while the third shows the House-passed funding levels as outlined in Divisions E and M of H.R. 3354.⁴ Funding levels from the Senate Appropriations Committee draft released on November 21, 2017, appear in the fourth column, and the final column shows the annual appropriations provided as a part of the consolidated appropriations act for FY2018.⁵

The purpose of this figure is to provide a visual comparison between the size of budget authority recommended or provided to DHS components. To accomplish this, supplemental appropriations are not reflected in the figure due to the difference in scale between the largest supplemental appropriations and the average component funding level.

Figure 1. Department of Homeland Security Net Discretionary Budget Authority and BCA Adjustments in Annual Appropriations by Component, FY2017-FY2018 (billions of dollars; Budget Control Act (BCA) adjustments patterned)

Source: CRS analysis of H.Rept. 115-239, the explanatory statement accompanying the unnumbered Senate draft, and P.L. 115-141 and its explanatory statement as printed in the Congressional Record of March 22, 2018, pp. H2544-H2608. Notes: For underlying data and notes on data, including supplemental appropriations not reflected in this figure, see Table 1. Abbreviations: CBP, Customs and Border Protection; USCG, U.S. Coast Guard; ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; TSA, Transportation Security Administration; FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency; USSS, U.S. Secret Service; NPPD, National Protection and Programs Directorate; S&T, Science and Technology Directorate; MD, Management Directorate; DNDO, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office; A&O, Analysis and Operations; FLETC, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; OIG, Office of the Inspector General; OSEM, Office of the Secretary and Executive Management; OHA, Office of Health Affairs; USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; SAC, Senate Appropriations Committee.

While the total net discretionary budget authority, when adjusted for the effect of rescissions, provides the "score" that is measured against the bill's discretionary spending allocation, it does not represent the total budget authority provided to DHS. "Net" discretionary appropriations are the net balance of discretionary appropriations minus any offsetting collections. Such collections are addressed in the appropriations legislation, and provide significant resources to some components of DHS, such as the Transportation Security Administration and National Protection and Programs Directorate. They do not include mandatory spending, resources derived directly from fee collections without annual congressional action, or resources covered by adjustments to the discretionary spending limits.⁶ Congress controls the reprogramming of these resources through detailed tables provided in appropriations committee reports, conference reports, and statements of managers.

Figure 2 uses the data drawn from these detailed tables to show a more complete picture of the resources available to eight DHS components: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services—the seven operational components—and the National Protection and Programs Directorate.

In Figure 2, these eight components are listed along the bottom axis. Each component's funding level as a section of the figure has five bars, representing the same five phases of the appropriations process as in Figure 1: funding described in the explanatory statement accompanying the enacted FY2017 appropriations for DHS; requested by the Trump Administration for FY2018; passed by the House in H.R. 3354; recommended by the Senate Appropriations Committee in their unnumbered draft; and enacted in P.L. 115-141. The bottom segment of each bar represents net discretionary budget authority—the same amount for each as represented in Figure 1.

On top of these bases are several other types of segments, representing fee revenues, offsetting collections, mandatory spending,⁷ and funding covered by adjustments to discretionary spending limits under the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25) in annual appropriations.⁸ Unlike in Figure 1, supplemental appropriations are reflected in Figure 2—although those provided for FY2018 are too large to be accommodated at the same scale as the rest of the figure. Therefore, the full length of this bar is truncated, but labeled with its actual value. A small inset graphic shows the scale of supplemental appropriations relative to the other appropriations.

The resulting diagram allows for easier comparison of changes in individual component appropriations, and provides a more accurate description of each component's overall resource level. Among the changes it illuminates are the increase in CBP's budget for proposed border barrier funding; partial acceptance of increases in ICE operations funding by the House Appropriations Committee; an increase in discretionary spending to support the TSA's budget in the absence of the Trump Administration's proposed fee increase; increased funding for Coast Guard acquisitions as proposed in the Senate Appropriations Committee draft; and increased funding for FEMA in the omnibus, as opposed to the Administration's proposed reductions in FEMA's grant programs.

Figure 2. Department of Homeland Security Budget Authority by Selected DHS Component, FY2017-FY2018 (billions of dollars of budget authority controlled for reprogramming through appropriations committee reports)

Source: CRS analysis of H.Rept. 115-239, the explanatory statement accompanying the unnumbered Senate draft, and P.L. 115-141 and its explanatory statement as printed in the Congressional Record of March 22, 2018, pp. H2544-H2608. Note: For underlying data and notes on data, see Table 1. Abbreviations: CBP, Customs and Border Protection; USCG, U.S. Coast Guard; ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; TSA, Transportation Security Administration; FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency; USSS, U.S. Secret Service; NPPD, National Protection and Programs Directorate; S&T, Science and Technology Directorate; MD, Management Directorate; DNDO, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office; A&O, Analysis and Operations; FLETC, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; OIG, Office of the Inspector General; OSEM, Office of the Secretary and Executive Management; OHA, Office of Health Affairs; USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Table 1 provides a complete breakdown of the total discretionary budget authority outlined in Figure 1⁹ and the aspects of funding outlined in Figure 2 for all DHS components.

These aspects of funding controlled for reprogramming through the appropriations reports do not reflect all funding available to these components. Much of DHS's mandatory spending, including spending on flood insurance claims, as well as trust funds for the Coast Guard and the Secret Service, is not reflected in the detailed appropriations committee-generated tables that control reprogrammings.

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