December 16, 2015 

Division F of the omnibus FY 2016 appropriations bill provides funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The joint explanatory statement for that division is here.

Transportation Security Administration. The bill provides a gross total of $7.24 billion for the Transportation Security Administration for fiscal year 2016, which is an increase of $92 million, or 1.3 percent over FY 2015. This is offset with $2.13 billion in regular current-law TSA aviation security fees and a one-to-one $250 million in security fees that directly offsets the mandatory Aviation Security Capital Program, for a net discretionary appropriation of $4.86 billion.

The table below shows the TSA budget in the omnibus bill. The most interesting changes from last year are a 12.6 percent cut in surface transportation security inspectors and a 16.1 percent increase in crew and other vetting programs.

Coast Guard. The omnibus bill provides $10.9 billion for the U.S. Coast Guard in 2016. This is an $880 million (8.8 percent) increase over last year and significantly exceeds the President’s request, the House bill or the Senate bill. The Coast Guard appears to be a prime beneficiary of the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015 and its increase in the overall discretionary spending totals.

In particular, the Coast Guard’s procurement account (Acquisition, Construction and Improvements) got a huge benefit from the extra discretionary spending money. AC&I gets a 59 percent increase over last year, and its $1.945 billion is almost double the $1.017 billion requested by the President. The prime beneficiary is the shipbuilding program, which gets $1.264 billion in the omnibus compared to $824 million last year and just $533 million in the budget request. (The President did not request another National Security Cutter this year, but the omnibus bill provides $640 million for one.) And in the aircraft department, the omnibus bill adds $95 million to the request to buy another HC-130J.

Federal Emergency Management Agency. The omnibus legislation continues the status quo for FEMA’s transportation security grants – $100 million for port security grants and $100 million for rail and mass transit security grants (of which $10 million is set aside for Amtrak and $3 million is set aside for over-the-road bus security).