Highlights from the President's FY 2018 Budget Request: Dept. of Homeland Security

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

The administration’s FY 2018 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is $44.1 billion, a $5.2 billion (10.5 percent) decrease in non-disaster, net discretionary funding, excluding disaster-relief funding. The proposed budget would include $975.8 million in new funding for “high-priority tactical infrastructure and border security technology improvements to provide a layered defense at the border and effective surveillance technology and equipment.”

In conjunction with the FY 2018 budget, President Trump released an Executive Order, Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, to keep cybersecurity as a key national priority and places DHS at the forefront of those efforts. The FY 2018 budget includes: 

• $971.3 million ($301.9 million; 45.1 percent increase) to improve security of the U.S. cyber infrastructure in collaboration with public, private, and international partners, including $279.0 million for the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program; and, 
• $397.2 million ($11.3 million;  2.9 percent increase) for the National Cybersecurity Protection System, commonly referred to as EINSTEIN, to continue deploying new intrusion prevention, information sharing, and analytic capabilities to federal civilian departments and agencies.

In the president’s budget, funding for the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) would receive $627.3 million ($154.4 million; 19.8 percent decrease) in funding including $372.7 million to support research and development activities. The S&T Directorate works with state and local partners to support research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) and provides technology solutions to improve mission effectiveness. Proposed funding for S&T initiatives include:

• Laboratory Facilities — $107 million ($26.9 million; 20.1 percent decrease);
• Research, Development and Innovation — $343 million ($87.1 million; 20.3 percent decrease); and,
• University Programs — $30 million ($40.5 million; 25.9 percent decrease).

In addition to S&T’s funding for R&D activities, several other entities within DHS would receive funding to support R&D activities including:

• Domestic Nuclear Detection Office – $144.2 million ($10.9 million; 7 percent decrease) including $61 million ($1 million; 1.6 percent decrease) for transformational R&D;
• Transportation Security Administration – $22.2 million ($14.1 million; 38.8 percent decrease); and,
• U.S. Coast Guard via Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) Activities – $18.6 million ($17.7 million; 48.8 percent decrease).