U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas released a statement on the Biden-Harris administration's fiscal year 2023 budget for the DHS.
According to a March 28 news release, the budget for 2023 is $97.3 billion, an increase of $6.5 billion from last year's budget, and will be used to advance Biden's goals of improving the economy, reducing the deficit and helping American families reduce costs.
“Throughout the last year, I traveled across the country to meet with the DHS workforce, and I heard directly from them about the resources they need to achieve their critical mission,” Mayorkas said in the release. “This budget of $97.3 billion will ensure they have the tools necessary to safeguard the American people, our homeland and our values.”
DHS will use the funding to protect American communities, enhance border security and improve the legal immigration system, boost modernization and cybersecurity, strengthen disaster preparedness and climate resilience and support the DHS workforce, the release reported.
“The budget will support our work to protect communities from today’s complex threats by doubling funding for the Non-Profit Security Grant Program and investing in DHS’s anti-human trafficking efforts. It will bolster our critical work to protect the traveling public by ensuring that the TSA workforce will be paid on par with other federal government employees. Notably, the budget makes smart investments in technology to keep our borders secure and includes funding that will allow us to process asylum claims more efficiently as we build a safe, orderly and humane immigration system.”
The budget proposes a 4.6 percent pay increase for both civilian and military employees of the DHS.
