Airport Alert: House Appropriations Committee Advances FY 2025 DHS/TSA/CBP Spending Bill
House Appropriations Committee Advances FY25 DHS/TSA/CBP Spending Bill
June 12, 2024
This afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee met and approved on a party-line vote of 33-26 its version of the fiscal year 2025 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. This Committee considered 25 amendments that largely focused on border and immigration matters, including one to increase CBP officers funded in the bill. Unfortunately, that amendment was not adopted.
As we have reported previously, the House DHS spending bill includes good news for airports with proposed funding of $111 million for TSA personnel to continue monitoring exit lanes at airports, $45.6 million to restore funding for law enforcement officer reimbursement grants, $34.1 million to restore funding for state and local-led canine team reimbursements, and $13.94 million to complete the process of reimbursing airports for the cost of in-line baggage screening systems installed before December 31, 2007.
The report accompanying the House committee-approved FY25 DHS spending bill also includes helpful although not iron-clad direction to TSA advocated by AAAE to rescind the current airport worker screening Airport Security Program amendment and solicit a formal round of notice and comment to “understand the full financial and operational impacts of this proposal on airport aviation security."
For CBP, the House bill includes funding to hire 150 new officers and annualizes the salaries of the 150 new officers first funded in the FY24 appropriations bill. Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) offered an amendment to fund additional CBP officers beyond the 150 in the bill. Cuellar highlighted that 1,690 officers are expected to retire in 2028. Both Cuellar and Acting Subcommittee Ranking Member Lauren Underwood (D-IL) stressed that it is critical to begin filling these positions now to ensure a smooth transition. Representative John Rutherford (R-FL) opposed the amendment, expressing concern about covering attrition at this time. The amendment failed by voice vote.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider this bill on the floor later this month. At this time, it is unclear when the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin consideration of its FY25 spending bills. Ultimately the House bill will need to be reconciled with a yet-to-be-released Senate version of the FY25 DHS spending measure. Most likely this will not occur until after the November election.
