The House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee moved the 2027 spending bill forward on Friday, as separate funding for ICE and CBP also progresses through Congress.
Lawmakers approved fiscal year 2026 funding for most of the Department of Homeland Security back in May, but work on the 2027 budget is already well underway.
The House Appropriations Committee’s homeland security subcommittee approved its version of the 2027 DHS spending bill on Thursday. The vote fell along party lines in the Republican-led committee.
The bill’s details, especially concerning border security and immigration enforcement agencies, may still shift as Republican leaders push ahead with a separate reconciliation package.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate approved a $70 billion reconciliation bill. This measure would provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the next three years, lasting through the end of President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The House will likely take it up next week, but reconciliation isn’t how we should be funding the day-to-day functions of federal agencies,” said Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), the homeland security subcommittee chairman, during Friday’s hearing.
ICE and CBP are currently operating without a new appropriations agreement for 2026. Those agencies were excluded from the May spending deal. However, they still have leftover funds from the 2025 reconciliation bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which continues to support most of their activities.
While the reconciliation process and ongoing debates over immigration enforcement will likely create obstacles, the House subcommittee’s bill still serves as a key indicator of where DHS budget priorities may be headed in the next funding cycle. Here are three key takeaways from the 2027 legislation:
CISA budget
The subcommittee’s proposal sets aside $2.4 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the next fiscal year. That’s $400 million above what the Trump administration had requested for the agency.
The planned CISA funding breaks down to $694 million for cybersecurity operations, $378 million for federal and critical infrastructure cybersecurity programs, and an additional $31 million dedicated to filling “mission critical positions aimed at countering threats from foreign nations such as China,” according to the House Appropriations committee summary.
CISA has resumed hiring after seeing its workforce shrink by about one-third over the past year. During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin stated that the agency still needs roughly 600 additional employees.
DHS IG budget
The House legislation pushes back against the Trump administration’s plan to reduce the Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s budget. The spending measure would provide $227 million for the DHS Office of the Inspector General. When factoring in the extra multi-year funding that Congress approved in 2026 for immigration detention oversight and the previous year’s reconciliation bill, this represents essentially level funding for the IG’s office.
The White House, by contrast, had proposed slashing the DHS OIG’s budget to $198 million for 2027. Budget documents show this reduction would force the inspector general’s office to eliminate 85 full-time positions.
Such a cut would “weaken the OIG’s ability to conduct oversight of departmental operations,” the budget documents explain. It would also affect the office’s capacity to “tackle the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse across DHS programs; carry out audits, inspections, and investigations requested by Congress; and support the department’s work on public safety and national security,” the documents add.
FEMA grants
The spending bill would direct $34.1 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with $28.3 billion earmarked for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund.
The House subcommittee largely turned down the White House’s plan to slash FEMA’s non-disaster grant programs by $1.3 billion. The bill instead provides:
- $506.5 million for the State Homeland Security Grant Program, compared with the administration’s request of $351 million.
- $599 million for the Urban Area Security Initiative, rather than the $415.5 million requested by the White House.
- $315 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, above the $274.5 million proposed in the budget request.
- $702 million for Assistance to Firefighter Grants, exceeding the administration’s $648 million proposal.
The legislation also sets aside $415.3 million for FEMA’s training, exercises, technical assistance, and other initiatives — more than twice what the administration had called for. These programs encompass the U.S. Fire Administration, the Emergency Management Institute, and the Center for Domestic Preparedness.
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