The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security today approved by voice vote its fiscal year 2022 funding bill.
For 2022, bill provides funding of $52.81 billion, an increase of $934 million above 2021. In total, the bill provides total funding of $76.15 billion, including $18.8 billion for major disaster response and recovery and $4.57 billion that is offset by fee collections. The legislation:
* Secures our critical infrastructure with dramatically increased funding to prevent cyber-attacks and root out cyber intrusions
* Invests strongly in maritime security through funding for the Coast Guard
* Makes responsible investments in border security
* Respects the dignity of immigrants with new funding to improve migrant processing and reduce backlogs in refugee, asylum, and immigration benefit applications
The bill next heads to the full Committee for markup.
“As the nature of the threats facing the country changes, the missions and investments of the Department of Homeland Security must quickly adapt and respond. This bill makes historic investments in cyber and infrastructure security, helps communities combat domestic extremist violence, expands the reach of the Coast Guard in the Arctic and the maritime drug and transit zones, and supports the FEMA response workforce as climate change makes natural disasters more frequent and severe," Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA-40) said. “We are also taking steps to help the Department restore a commitment to the humane treatment of migrants through increased funding for Alternatives to Detention with case management services and reduced lengths of stay in detention for asylum seekers who don’t pose a flight risk and are not a threat to public safety or national security."
“As recent events like the Colonial Pipeline hack have demonstrated, it is obvious that we must do more to secure our nation’s cyber infrastructure. That’s why this bill’s investments in preventing cyber attacks and rooting out cyber intrusions are so critical," Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said. “Elsewhere within Homeland Security, a strong Coast Guard is essential to protect our national security, especially from Russian aggression in the Arctic, and the funding in this bill is pivotal to that effort. Finally, I continue to have serious concerns regarding the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals, particularly children, at border facilities. We must do more to protect immigrants, especially children and their families. I am proud that this bill respects their dignity by improving conditions in CPB short-term holding facilities, investing in alternatives to detention, making processing quicker and more efficient, and reducing backlogs of immigration, refugee, and asylum applications."
A summary of the bill is here. The text of the draft bill is. In keeping with the Appropriations Committee’s commitment to transparency, information on Community Project Funding in the bill is.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
