Airport Alert: House DHS Subcommittee Unveils FY26 Funding Recommendations; Key Priorities Addressed
June 8, 2025
In advance of consideration at tomorrow evening’s markup, the House Appropriations Subcommittee unveiled its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In total, the bill provides $66.36 billion in discretionary funding for DHS, which is about one percent above the FY25 level.
While much of the bill is focused on securing the southern border, removing dangerous criminals, and other national security priorities, there are important wins for airports, particularly within the TSA account. Within the limited details provided, notable recommendations contained in the draft bill and press release include funding for some critical airport priorities. Specifically,
In total, the House recommends $11.2 billion for TSA, which is $43.5 million above FY25. The bill does not allocate all aviation security fees collected directly to TSA instead of some being required for deficit reduction, as requested by the administration. For appropriators to have access to these fees, Congress would first need to enact a legislative fix to end the fee diversion, which has not occurred.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
In total, the House recommends $19 billion for CBP, a decrease of $290 million below FY25. Most of this funding is focused on border security. It is unclear from the subcommittee summary documents if the 450 new CBP officers requested for FY26 are included in the funding recommendation.
What’s Next?
The subcommittee is scheduled to consider its legislation tomorrow at 6 p.m. and we will keep you updated on the bill’s progress. Links to the House FY 2026 DHS Appropriations bill and press release can be found here.
More funding details about TSA and CBP priorities will be contained in the Subcommittee report, which is not released until 24 hours before the full Appropriations Committee considers the FY26 DHS bill. That is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2025.
In advance of consideration at tomorrow evening’s markup, the House Appropriations Subcommittee unveiled its proposed Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its component agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In total, the bill provides $66.36 billion in discretionary funding for DHS, which is about one percent above the FY25 level.
While much of the bill is focused on securing the southern border, removing dangerous criminals, and other national security priorities, there are important wins for airports, particularly within the TSA account. Within the limited details provided, notable recommendations contained in the draft bill and press release include funding for some critical airport priorities. Specifically,
- $45.9 million for law enforcement officer reimbursement grants. Funding for this program was eliminated in FY24, but strong advocacy from impacted airports and AAAE successfully swayed the subcommittee to provide funding for these grants in FY26.
- $6.2 billion for TSA’s frontline screening workforce, an amount similar to the FY25 level. While it is unclear if the draft bill rejects the administration’s request to downsize the screener workforce based on the limited information provided at this point, the bill does not include statutory language that would permit TSA to shift the cost and responsibility of staffing exit lanes to airports as proposed in the budget request. This means that TSA will continue to staff exit lanes at those airports where it has been required to do so since 2013.
- $213 million for computed tomography systems to screen carry-on baggage at passenger checkpoints, $175 million above the FY25 level and similar to the amount requested by the administration.
In total, the House recommends $11.2 billion for TSA, which is $43.5 million above FY25. The bill does not allocate all aviation security fees collected directly to TSA instead of some being required for deficit reduction, as requested by the administration. For appropriators to have access to these fees, Congress would first need to enact a legislative fix to end the fee diversion, which has not occurred.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
In total, the House recommends $19 billion for CBP, a decrease of $290 million below FY25. Most of this funding is focused on border security. It is unclear from the subcommittee summary documents if the 450 new CBP officers requested for FY26 are included in the funding recommendation.
What’s Next?
The subcommittee is scheduled to consider its legislation tomorrow at 6 p.m. and we will keep you updated on the bill’s progress. Links to the House FY 2026 DHS Appropriations bill and press release can be found here.
More funding details about TSA and CBP priorities will be contained in the Subcommittee report, which is not released until 24 hours before the full Appropriations Committee considers the FY26 DHS bill. That is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2025.
