Why It Matters
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no full-year appropriation for fiscal year 2027, and a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) keeping the department funded expires Dec. 11, according to a new Congressional Research Service report. The Trump administration's $118.39 billion budget request for DHS, released April 3, was prepared before the fiscal year 2026 funding process was complete, meaning it did not account for the substantial multiyear funding later provided to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through reconciliation legislation.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet marked up a version of the fiscal year 2027 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill. The lapse in DHS appropriations that began in February was described in the report as the longest in the department's history.
The Big Picture
Fiscal year 2026 DHS funding was resolved in two pieces: P.L. 119-86, enacted April 30, funded all of DHS except ICE and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP); then the Secure America Act, P.L. 119-98, enacted June 10, provided multiyear funding for CBP, ICE, and the Office of the Secretary through fiscal year 2029 via reconciliation. The report describes both the partial funding through the regular appropriations act and the use of reconciliation to fund CBP and ICE operating costs as "departures from precedent."
The House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 9310 on June 12 by a vote of 34-27, providing $99.63 billion in discretionary budget authority, including $28.39 billion for major disasters, roughly $230 million above the administration's request. The House bill also includes at least $17.06 billion for ICE and USBP activities that were funded through the fiscal year 2026 reconciliation law, a structural shift the report says Congress will need to reconcile in any final fiscal year 2027 measure.
The enacted CR, P.L. 119-103, signed by President Trump on Sept. 2, funds DHS at fiscal year 2026 rates through Dec. 11 and extends several immigration-related authorities, including E-Verify, the Conrad State Program, the non-minister religious worker program, and supplemental H-2B visa authority. The CR also allows up to $26.37 billion to be apportioned for Disaster Relief Fund activities during the CR period, though the report notes this is not a supplemental appropriation and any obligations will count against the eventual fiscal year 2027 Disaster Relief Fund appropriation.
Since fiscal year 2010, no annual DHS appropriations measure has been enacted before two months of the fiscal year had elapsed, and in 14 of those 17 years, three months had passed before enactment.
The Bottom Line
The report says it remains to be seen how a finalized fiscal year 2027 DHS appropriations measure will account for the multiyear reconciliation funds already available to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through fiscal year 2029, and the Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet marked up its version of the bill, while the current continuing resolution is scheduled to expire December 11.
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