The President's 2016 Budget is designed to bring middle class economics into the 21st Century. This Budget shows what we can do if we invest in America's future and commit to an economy that rewards hard work, generates rising incomes, and allows everyone to share in the prosperity of a growing America. It lays out a strategy to strengthen our middle class and help America's hard-working families get ahead in a time of relentless economic and technological change. And it makes the critical investments needed to accelerate and sustain economic growth in the long run, including in research, education, training, and infrastructure.
These proposals will help working families feel more secure with paychecks that go further, help American workers upgrade their skills so they can compete for higher-paying jobs, and help create the conditions for our businesses to keep generating good new jobs for our workers to fill, while also fulfilling our most basic responsibility to keep Americans safe. We will make these investments, and end the harmful spending cuts known as sequestration, by cutting inefficient spending and reforming our broken tax code to make sure everyone pays their fair share. We can do all this while also putting our Nation on a more sustainable fiscal path. The Budget achieves about $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction, primarily from reforms to health programs, our tax code, and immigration.
Funding Highlights
- The President’s FY 2016 Budget proposes $41.2 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), aligned to the Department’s five primary missions:
- Prevent terrorism and enhance security, protecting the American people by safeguarding critical infrastructure, and implementing layered security on land, in the air, and at sea. Initiatives like risk-based screening of aviation passengers and other trusted traveler programs strengthen DHS operations while improving their efficiency.
- Secure and manage our borders, including historic levels of front-line personnel, technology and infrastructure to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit contraband, while fostering legitimate trade and travel. Recapitalization of critical assets such as non-intrusive inspection technology and the Coast Guard fleet ensure our borders remain secure.
- Enforce and administer our immigration laws, providing safe, secure, and humane detention of removable aliens who are held in government custody because they present a risk of flight, a risk to public safety, or are subject to mandatory detention.
- Safeguard and secure cyberspace, protecting our national and economic security. The Budget invests in both people and technology to disrupt cyber crimes while strengthening Federal network defenses.
- Strengthen national preparedness and resilience, building a ready and resilient Nation, with the ability to plan, prepare for, and respond to disasters. Proposals for climate resilience coupled with a restructured DHS grant program will help create robust national preparedness capabilities.
Reforms
- Unity of Effort: The Budget supports DHS efforts to enhance unity of effort across the components that comprise the Department. This initiative will strengthen DHS’s existing business processes, update the organizational structure, and re-orient and bolster command and control functions.
- Technology, Risk-Based and Intelligence Driven Programs: DHS has prioritized investments in technology and risk-based, intelligence-driven programs like Pre✓™ and Global Entry, and in the assets necessary to carry out DHS front-line missions today and in the future.
The Budget includes $41.2 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to carry out its five primary missions: prevent terrorism and enhance security, secure and manage our borders, enforce and administer our immigration laws; safeguard and secure cyberspace, and strengthen national preparedness and resilience. To strengthen the Department’s ability to carry out these mandates, the Budget supports Secretary Johnson’s challenge to improve DHS Unity of Effort. This initiative focuses on harmonizing DHS business processes, updating the organizational structure, and re-orienting and bolstering command and control functions. Through strategic review and investments in critical activities and operations across the Department, DHS will incorporate its agencies into a unified decision-making process that empowers its components to effectively execute their missions. Concurrent with the Budget submission, DHS has provided Congress with a blueprint for a new Common Appropriations Structure, which if adopted would standardize financial planning, programming, and budget execution across all DHS agencies.
Prevent Terrorism and Enhance Security
Aviation Security & Screening. The Budget invests $3.7 billion for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening operations to sustain aviation security and effectively align passenger screening resources based on risk. These risk-based security initiatives maximize security capabilities and expedite the screening process for low-risk travelers.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP). The Budget provides $132.3 million in program funding to support TTP, which provides expedited travel for pre-approved, low-risk travelers through dedicated lanes and kiosks. CBP TTP – Global Entry, SENTRI, NEXUS, and FAST – reached record levels of enrollment in FY 2014.
Radiological and Nuclear Detection. The Budget provides $101 million for Radiological and Nuclear Detection Equipment, with which the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and other DHS components, including the Coast Guard, CBP, and TSA, keep our Nation’s ports of entry safe and secure by detecting and interdicting illicit radioactive or nuclear materials.
Enhance U.S. Secret Service Capacity. The Budget proposes an increase of $86.7 million to enhance White House security and protect our Nation’s senior leaders, consistent with recommendations from the United States Secret Service Protective Missions Panel.
Secure and Manage Our Borders
Border Security Enhancement. The Budget invests funds to support 21,370 Border Patrol agents and 23,871 CBP officers. $373.5 million is provided to maintain necessary border security infrastructure and technology, improving CBP’s ability to detect and interdict illegal activity.
Unaccompanied Children and Families with Children. The Budget provides funds for apprehension, care, and transportation of unaccompanied children and families with children apprehended along the southwest border, including $691.9 million in base funding and up to an additional $162 million in contingency funding, enabling CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to respond effectively to surges in migration of unaccompanied children and families with children.
Coast Guard Recapitalization. The Budget provides $1.0 billion to replace aging Coast Guard cutters, aircraft, electronic systems and shore infrastructure. Recapitalization will ensure Coast Guard’s continued ability to enforce laws and treaties and defend the maritime domain against illegal activity and potential acts of terrorism.
Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) and Recapitalization Program. The Budget provides $85.3 million for the CBP NII program, which allows for passive radiation scanning and X-ray/gamma-ray imaging of cargo and conveyances. Large scale NII systems perform 7.2 million examinations per year at our Nation’s ports of entry.
Enforce and Administer our Immigration Laws
Prioritized Removal. The Budget provides $3.3 billion for the safe, secure, and humane supervision, detention and removal of priority removable individuals. This includes resources to:
- Supervise approximately 87,000 individuals per day (at full capacity) in detention and under the Alternatives to Detention program.
- An additional $94.5 million to support adult detention beds for higher risk individuals and $122.5 million for the more cost-effective Alternatives to Detention program for those who are not considered a threat to our communities. The Alternatives to Detention program places low-risk individuals under intensive supervision or electronic monitoring.
Safeguard and Secure Cyberspace
Cyber-Criminal Investigations. The Budget provides funds to sustain ICE cyber-criminal investigations capacity, and USSS’s network of 46 Financial Crimes Task Forces and 38 Electronic Crimes Task Forces, which continue to enable USSS to leverage partnerships with international law enforcement agencies through overseas field offices, to fight cyber-crime.
Network Security. The Budget provides $480 million for Federal network security, including the EINSTEIN3 Accelerated program, which enables DHS to detect and prevent malicious traffic. An additional $102.6 million is provided for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program, which provides hardware, software, and services designed to support activities that strengthen the operational security of Federal networks.
CyberSkills Management Support Initiative. The Budget invests funds to bolster DHS’s ability to develop and maintain a robust cybersecurity workforce.
Strengthening National Preparedness and Resilience
Disaster Resiliency. The Budget invests $9.6 billion to support disaster resiliency, primarily through the grants programs that are administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). This includes $7.4 billion in DRF funding to provide assistance to individuals and communities stricken by disasters, and $2.2 billion in grants to prepare State and local governments to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from incidents of terrorism and other catastrophic events.
Preparedness Grants Reform. The Budget proposes consolidating FEMA's State and local grant programs into a single National Preparedness Grant Program (NPGP), which will enable DHS to better target funds to create robust national preparedness capabilities. Particular emphasis in NPGP will be placed on building and sustaining capabilities that address high consequence events that pose the greatest risk to the security and resilience of the United States, but can also be utilized to address multiple threats and hazards.
Climate Resilience. The Budget invests $616 million to support the President’s Climate Resiliency initiative, including flood mapping and risk analysis, Pre-Disaster Mitigation grants for hazard mitigation planning and projects, analyses of climate change impacts on critical infrastructure, FEMA climate workshops, and regional resilience coordination.