DHS Funding Provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Last week, Congress passed, and the President signed into law H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). In addition to its tax and other policy elements, the roughly 900-page law includes dozens of funding provisions spread across numerous departments and agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components.

Funding for DHS and its agencies and directorates falls within the following Titles (sections) of the bill that corresponds to specific congressional appropriations committees.

• Title IV—Commerce, Science, and Transportation (covers the U.S. Coast Guard)
• Title IX—Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs 
• Title X—Judiciary

Of greater interest to the contractors and suppliers that support DHS is where the funding is going and for which purposes.

DHS Funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act

From an initial analysis of the bill, OBBBA includes nearly $190.6B in DHS funding, all of which is available until September 30, 2029. These dollars break out across the following DHS components. (Funding designated for the DHS Secretary for department-wide activities is labeled DHS-wide.)

How the individual funding provisions address specific mission areas or functional areas provides a useful perspective into the broad, general categories that Congress is funding. These assignments are not designated in the bill, but are my own classifications made from reviewing the provisions.

Some of these categories are not largely contractor-addressable, (e.g., Personnel, unless some of those funds go for supplies, etc.), but others will naturally have contracted and procured elements to them.

Specified DHS Funding in the OBBBA

The following elements received funding at these DHS component agencies. As mentioned above, funding may apply to more than one category in some cases.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): $74.9B

Facilities

• $45.0B for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential center capacity.

Personnel

• $29.85B for ICE personnel: hiring and training additional ICE personnel; performance, retention, and signing bonuses; and recruitment, hiring, and onboarding.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP): $66.8B

Border Infrastructure & Technology

• $46.5B for elements of the border infrastructure and wall system, including primary, waterborne, and secondary barriers; access roads; barrier system cameras, lights, sensors, and other detection technology; and work to prepare the ground at or near the border to allow CBP to conduct its operations.
• $6.2B for CBP Border Security, Technology, and Screening, including non-intrusive inspection equipment and associated civil works, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other innovative technologies, and other mission support; new platforms for rapid air and marine response capabilities; border surveillance technologies; expenses and technology relating to the biometric entry and exit system; screening of persons entering/exiting the U.S., including the initial screenings of unaccompanied alien children; combating drug trafficking; and commemorating efforts and events related to border security.

Personnel

• $4.1B to hire and train additional Border Patrol agents, Office of Field Operations officers, Air and Marine agents, rehired annuitants, and CBP field support personnel.
• $2.0B for personnel bonuses: to provide recruitment bonuses, performance awards, or annual retention bonuses to eligible Border Patrol agents, Office of Field Operations officers, and Air and Marine agents.
• $2.0B for immigration and enforcement activities, including hiring and training of additional CBP agents and support staff; alien departures and removals; alien background checks; protecting alien children from exploitation; transporting and return of aliens from contiguous territories; state and local participation in homeland security efforts; removal of specified unaccompanied alien children; expedited removal of criminal aliens; criminal and gang checks for unaccompanied alien children; and information technology to support immigration purposes, including improvements to fee and revenue collections. (Operations may also apply.)

Vehicles

• $855M for the repair of existing patrol units and the lease or acquisition of additional patrol units.

Facilities

• $5.0B for the lease, acquisition, construction, design, or improvement of facilities and checkpoints.

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG): $24.2B

Aircraft

• $1.1B for fixed-wing aircraft, related equipment, training simulators and program management.
• $2.3B for rotary-wing aircraft, related equipment, training simulators and program management.
• $266M for long-range unmanned aircraft and base stations, related equipment, and program management.

Vessels

• $4.3B for Offshore Patrol Cutters, related equipment, and program management.
• $1.0B for Fast Response Cutters, related equipment related, and program management.
• $4.3B for Polar Security Cutters, related equipment, and program management.
• $3.5B for Arctic Security Cutters, related equipment, and program management.
• $816M for light and medium icebreaking cutters, related equipment, and for program management.
• $162M for Waterways Commerce Cutters, related equipment, and program management.
• $75M to contract the services of, acquire, or procure autonomous maritime systems.

Facilities (and related service)

• $425M for the enlisted boot camp barracks and multi-use training center – for facilities design, planning, engineering, construction, and program management.
• $500M for the Coast Guard Yard – for construction, improvement, and dredging; and acquisition of a floating drydock.
• $2.7B for homeports and hangars for cutters and aircraft acquired under funds appropriated above.
• $300M for engineering and construction of shore facilities for homeporting of existing polar icebreaker commissioned into service in 2025.
• $2.2B for aviation, cutter, and shore facility depot maintenance and maintenance of command, control, communication, computer, and cyber assets.

Operations

• $170M for improving maritime domain awareness on the maritime border, at United States ports, at land-based facilities and in the cyber domain.

DHS-Wide: $20.0B

S&L Grants

• $10.0B to establish the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund for grants to eligible States and local governments to support construction or installation of a border wall, border fencing or other barrier, or buoys along the U.S. southern border; detection and interdiction of illicit substances and unlawful aliens who have committed a crime, and transfer or referral of such aliens to DHS; and relocation of unlawful aliens from small population centers to other domestic locations.           

Operations

• $10.0B for reimbursement of costs of DHS’s activities to safeguard U.S. borders.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): $2.9B

FEMA’s State Homeland Security Grant Program

• $1.0B for security, planning, and other costs related to the 2028 Olympics
• $625M for security and other costs related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup
• $500M for state and local capabilities to detect, identify, track, or monitor threats from unmanned aircraft systems             
• $450M for the Operation Stonegarden Grant Program

Operations

• $300M for presidential residence protection, to reimburse a State or local agency for extraordinary law enforcement personnel costs on or after July 1, 2024, for protection associated with any residence of the President (Personnel may also apply.)   

U.S. Secret Service (USSS): $1.2B

Personnel

• $1.2B for USSS personnel, training facilities, programming, and technology; and for performance, retention, and signing bonuses.

Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC): $750M

Training

• $285M for training newly hired DHS law enforcement personnel and State and local law enforcement agencies operating in support of DHS.

Facilities

• $465M for facilities procurement, construction, maintenance, improvements and training equipment.

Closing Thoughts

While $190B is effectively three times the $63.7B that DHS requested in its FY 2026 budget – a  huge amount – it is also going to be spread across the next four years. Assuming DHS gets at least what it is requesting at the top-line, the OBBBA effectively doubles DHS’s budget for the next several years (if the dollars were to be spread equally each year.)

This will produce some contracting opportunities in the relevant areas above, for sure. However, such opportunities will coincide with a growing effort at DHS to gain some efficiencies and economies in their contracts, including increased scrutiny of existing and newly awarded contracts. For example, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem recently issued a policy that her office will now review for approval all contracts and awards over $100,000. That will likely raise the bar for how contracts support the DHS mission and provide value for money. It could also conceivably shift some award timelines to the right. We shall see.