Department of Homeland Security FY 2022 Budget Request Observations

In late May the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its completed fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget request with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ranking among the highest-funded civilian departments.

Total Discretionary Funding and Priorities

The proposed FY 2022 budget provides $54.2B in total discretionary budget for DHS, a $299M (-0.5%) decrease from the FY 2021 enacted level and $1.3B (+2.4%) above the final FY 2020 level.

Funding highlights include:

• Provides $1.2B for border infrastructure to modernize land ports of entry and border security technology, including $47M for Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) technologies.
• Proposes $618M for research and development, including $54M for cybersecurity data analytics, $39M for climate resilience, $36M for transportation security technologies, and $10M for domestic terrorism prevention and response research.
• Includes $274M to support upgrades and maintenance to the Coast Guard’s Shore Facility Infrastructure.
• Allocates $127M for TSA’s Secure Flight watch list matching capability, and $105M for the Checkpoint Property Screening System (CPSS) program to procure 126 Computed Tomography (CT) screening systems.

DHS Information Technology Budget

The FY 2022 IT budget request for DHS is $8.2B allocated across its numerous directorates. The topline request is $728M (+9.8%) above the FY 2021 enacted level. This does not include spending on programs categorized as “National Security Systems,” which OMB began excluding from their IT budget data since the FY 2019 budget request.

Within this total request the new budget allocates $848M – just over 10% of the total $8.1B IT budget – to new Development/Modernization/Enhancement (DME) spending for FY 2022, which is 22% more than FY 2021. (See table below.)

Noteworthy IT Programs

Probing the details of DHS’s IT budget published on OMB’s IT Dashboard gives deeper insight into their investments, initiatives and priorities. Here are the five largest IT initiatives across DHS for FY 2022 including observations about budget growth and their proportion of new development spending.

• National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS): Provides a wide range of cyber security capabilities for .gov networks such as intrusion detection and prevention; advanced cyber analytics and visualization; incident management; and information sharing. At $408M for FY 2022, NCPS receives $16M (+4%) more than the FY 2021 enacted level. The investment consists of 22% Development, Modernization and Enhancement (DME) funding.
• Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM): CDM provides continuous monitoring, diagnosis, and mitigation capabilities to strengthen the security posture of the federal civilian networks. The $325M requested for this investment is $189K (+0.1%) above the FY 2021 enacted budget level and consists of 80% DME funding.
• TSA - Technology Infrastructure Modernization (TIM) Program: TIM enhances domestic screening and vetting of passengers, baggage, cargo and transportation sector workers to deter, identify and interdict threats. At $212M for FY 2022 this investment receives a $23M (+12%) increase from FY 2021 and is entirely categorized as Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funding.
• CBP - Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) Systems: NII technologies support the detection and prevention of contraband from entering the U.S., while having a minimal impact on the flow of legitimate commerce. At $205M for FY 2022, NII receives $47M (+30%) more than the FY 2021 enacted level. The investment consists of 16% Development, Modernization and Enhancement (DME) funding.
• CBP - End User: The CBP End User Standard Investment supports the computers, software, computer peripherals, and the associated technical support required to carry out CBP's mission. For FY 2022 this program receives $189M, including an $835K (+0.4%) increase from FY 2021. This investment is 100% Operations and Maintenance (O&M).

Typically within each new budget proposal the DHS component IT budgets are a mix of winners and losers. For FY 2022, the mix is clearly weighted toward the winner column with only a few of the smaller components seeing reductions. Among the biggest IT budget winners are several components with $500M+ IT budgets that are receiving double-digit growth rates. Proposed growth at USCG, CISA, ICE and FEMA is 38%, 21%, 15% and 14%, respectively.

It is also noteworthy that several of DHS’s largest components – CBP, CISA, CIS and FEMA – are slated for rebounding IT budgets for FY 2022 after reductions in FY 2021 and years prior. Such increases, such as CISA’s 21% bump, are tied to priorities around cybersecurity and IT modernization and will have impacts beyond DHS to impact IT priorities across the federal government.

According to its IT budget submission to OMB, DHS plans acquisitions for 241 programs representing $6.2B (76%) of its total departmental IT budget request. FEMA and CBP reflect the most planned acquisitions, representing 44 investments ($1.3B) and 43 investments ($453M), respectively. For comparison, CISA has half as many planned acquisitions (21) that account for $1.2B, which is 94% of its agency IT budget. Consequently, the contract opportunities associated with planned acquisitions at these agencies will vary in size and influence the competitive landscape that contractors will face.