Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Fiscal Year 2020 Homeland Security Funding Bill

WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security today approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2020 bill. The bill provides a gross total of $63.8 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security, $2.2 billion above the fiscal year 2019 enacted level and $1.9 billion below the President’s request. When excluding offsetting collections and a cap adjustment for disaster response activities, the net discretionary total for the bill is $49.7 billion. The bill next heads to the full Committee for markup.

"With the subcommittee's passage of our Homeland Security funding bill, we have taken an important step forward to keep America safe, spend taxpayer dollars wisely, and preserve our nation's values of justice and fairness,” said House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard.  “Our bill supports the broad array of homeland security missions, from protecting air travel and our territorial waters, to helping state and local governments prepare for terrorism threats and disasters, to securing our cybersecurity systems and physical infrastructure.  It also takes a balanced approach to border security and immigration enforcement, including new efforts to protect the dignity and safety of every person in U.S. government custody.”

“With this bill, House Democrats continue fighting to strengthen our national security while reflecting our American values,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey. “It provides strong investments in disaster relief and anti-terrorism grant programs while putting a check on the cruel immigration enforcement of the Trump Administration. Restrictions in this bill would tighten the reins on the Administration’s practice of transferring funds for purposes other than those intended by Congress, including the dramatic expansion of interior immigration enforcement. This bill makes critical investments in our national security infrastructure while curtailing inhumane policies that have threatened many of our most vulnerable.”

A summary of the bill is here. The text of the bill is here.

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