Department of Homeland Security FY 2026 Budget Request Highlights

At the beginning of June, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released its fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) placing among the highest-funded civilian departments. Since then, additional budget details have been released by DHS, as the overall FY 2026 budget landscape continues to emerge.

DHS Total Discretionary Funding and Technology Priorities

DHS’s proposed FY 2026 budget provides $63.7B in total discretionary budget, 2.0% below the FY 2025 full-year continuing resolution (CR) level. In addition, the budget includes $26.5B for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF).

Below are some budget highlights from several DHS component agencies and directorates, along with examples of technology investments described within their budget justifications sent to Congress.

• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency – Provides CISA with nearly $2.4B in total funding, a reduction of $495M from FY 2025. The FY 2026 budget pursues refocusing CISA on its core cybersecurity mission of prioritizing protection of federal networks. The budget eliminates CISA funding for election security and mis/dis/mal-information programs; Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program; and bombing prevention and school safety programs, (which are shifted to state and local partners).
  • CISA technology investments include $642M for Cyber Operations (-$177M); $410M for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program (+$66M); and $244M for Cybersecurity Technology and Services (-$36M).
• Management Directorate – Allocates $4.0B for the Management Directorate (-$196M), of which $642M is for the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer operations (+$14.6M). Major investments include $107M for Financial Systems Modernization (+$61M), $40M for Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology Development and Operations (+$30M), $8.4M for One Net - Homeland Security Enterprise Network (-$3M), $3.3M for DHS Data Framework (unchanged), and $3.2M for Human Resources Information Technology (-$7.6M).
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Requests $11.3B for ICE, $869M above FY 2025. Key systems modernization investments include $29M in new funds for the Consolidated ICE Financial Solution (CIFS) program and nearly $11M in new funds for the Human Resources Systems program.
• Customs and Border Protection – Supplies $23.0B for CBP, which is nearly $82M below the FY 2025 level. Of the total $23.0B slated for FY 2026, $18.1B is for Operations Support (-$268M) and $766M is for CBP Procurement, Construction, and Improvements (-$84M). Integrated Operations receives a modest $85M increase to reach $1.7B, reflecting investment in coordination and support systems.
• Transportation Security Administration – Allots $11.6B for the TSA, an increase of $226M from FY 2025. Of the $11.6B FY 2026 request, $10.6B is for Operations and Support, $216M is for Procurement, Construction, and Improvements, and $35M is for Research and Development. Key technology programs include $215M for the Checkpoint Property Screening System (CPSS) (+182M), $3M for Emerging Alarm Resolution Technologies (R&D) (+1.5M), $6M for Checkpoint Automation (CPAM) (R&D) (+$3.5M), and $20M in new funding for Biometrics Technology (R&D).
• U.S. Coast Guard – Provides $14.5B for the USCG, a $968M increase from FY 2025. Noteworthy technology investments include $30M in new funding for In-Service Systems Sustainment (ISSS) and $26M for the Cyber and Enterprise Mission Platform (+$4.3M).
• Science and Technology – Supplies $759M for the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), an increase of $17M. Key technology research focus areas include cybersecurity, AI and other emerging technologies.
• Analysis and Operations – Allots $388M for Analysis and Operations (I&A and OSA), a $42M increase. Technology priorities include intelligence and situational awareness, including cyber threat analysis.

Note: These budget request figures do not include FY 2026 funding requests included in the current FY 2025 budget reconciliation (i.e., the “big, beautiful bill”) that is currently under negotiation in Congress.

DHS Information Technology and Cybersecurity Budgets

While OMB has not yet released the details of agency Information Technology budgets for FY 2026, OMB has released a Technical Supplement to the 2026 Budget that provided the top-line numbers for Total IT and Cybersecurity for DHS and other departments and agencies.

For FY 2026, DHS’s total budget request for Information Technology is $10.7B. Further, DHS is planning to spend $3.1B on cybersecurity activities.

We will get a better sense of the IT program priorities and details once OMB has posted more complete IT budget information to their IT Dashboard. Stay tuned.