Final FY24 DHS Spending Bill Released; Mixed Results for Airports
March 21, 2024
On March 21, Congressional leaders released the second omnibus appropriations spending bill, totaling $1.2 trillion, that must be passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate before the end of the week. The current continuing resolution expires at midnight on March 22. A total of $61.8 billion is provided for the Department of Homeland Security within the larger spending package, including funding for both TSA and CBP.
While the bill largely funds TSA pay equity, as well as provides additional resources for Transportation Security Officers and exit lane staffing, it does not include funding for other airport priorities and greatly reduces funding for security screening technologies.
Transportation Security Administration:
The bill provides $6.8 billion in net discretionary appropriations for TSA, after factoring out user fees. While the bill does not end the diversion of aviation security fees to pay for deficit reduction, it does assume an increase in fee collections overall, which helps to boost the TSA spending level. Notable funding items include:
• TSA Pay Parity: The agreement includes $1.36 billion to align TSA employee compensation with the federal workforce and expand collective bargaining rights for Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), $57 million below the amount requested. These efforts were first funded in the FY23 omnibus appropriations bill to ensure that the TSA workforce is compensated at rates comparable with their peers in the Federal workforce. Pay parity is funded for all the TSA workforce, instead of just the TSOs as proposed by the House. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill summary highlights that 'This initiative enables TSA to address recruiting and retention challenges as the agency responds to burgeoning post-pandemic travel volumes. Since its implementation, TSA attrition is down over 50% compared to this time last year.'
• Additional Transportation Security Officers: The agreement includes $182 million for additional TSOs to meet an anticipated increase in passenger volume while ensuring adherence to passenger wait time expectations and maintaining security effectiveness. This is $15 million below the budget request.
• Exit Lane Staffing: The agreement includes an increase of $98.5 million above the request for TSA to continue to staff exit lanes at those locations where TSA monitored them on December 1, 2013.
• Eliminates Funding for Law Enforcement Officer Reimbursement Grants: The bill does not provide any funding for LEO reimbursement grants. The administration had proposed to eliminate this funding, which partially reimburses about 290 airports for their law enforcement personnel that support passenger screening checkpoints throughout the United States.
• Eliminates Canine Reimbursement Program: The bill eliminates funding for stipends that support 675 state and local LEO-operated canine teams, as proposed by the administration.
• EDS Check Baggage Reimbursement Denied: The agreement does not provide any funding to support outstanding reimbursement costs associated with in-line baggage and screening systems procured before 2007. Both the House and Senate bills had included $13.9 million, which was the amount outstanding for these purchases.
• Reduces Funding for Checkpoint Security Technologies: The agreement includes $35.2 million for Checkpoint Property Screening Systems, including computed tomography equipment. This is half the amount requested by the administration and about a two-third reduction from the 2023 level. The statement does not explain the funding reduction of a technology that the TSA Administrator has previously labeled as critical to detect complex and evolving threats against aviation. At this level, it most likely will further delay the full deployment of these systems to all airports nationwide beyond 2042.
• Reduces Funding for Credential Authentical Technology (CAT): The bill provides $5.5 million to procure the next generation of CATs and upgrade previously fielded systems. This is half the amount requested by the administration and the reduction is not explained.
• Eliminates Funding for New National Deployment Office Travel Expenses: The bill does not include the $10 million requested to fund increased travel costs for TSOs that are deployed nationwide on short notice to airports with staffing shortages, for a crisis, or special events.
• Aviation Worker Screening: While both the House and Senate reports included language expressing concern about TSA's aviation worker screening amendment and the additional burden this requirement places on airport operators, the final statement does not address this issue further.
• Statutory Language on Screening Members of Congress and other Elected Officials: Since 2007, Congress has long taken the position that Members of Congress and other federal officials should not be exempt from laws the rest of the country abides by, including federal passenger and baggage screening requirements. The bill modifies the language this year to prohibit funds or fees from being used to alter 'the applicability of this screening requirement.' While this is positive for TSA, the airport escort amendment included in the Senate Commerce Committee passed FAA reauthorization legislation, S. 1939, permits TSA to shift these costs and responsibilities to airports. The appropriations bill does not address that.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
The bill provides $19.6 billion for CBP, which is $3.2 billion above the request. This increase is largely devoted to border security efforts. While the statement accompanying the bill provides scant details on airport priorities, there are a few items of note:
• CBP Officers: The agreement includes $20 million above the request to hire 150 additional CBP officers. Since the administration had requested 150 new officers in FY24, the total number of new officers is 300.
• Overtime Cap: The bill retains the overtime cap at $45,000 for CBP officers and continues to permit the Secretary to waive this cap on an individual basis in the case of immigration emergencies.
What's Next:
The House is expected to vote tomorrow on this omnibus spending agreement after the Speaker waives the rule that provides House members with 72 hours to review the bill before voting. Final passage in the House will require a favorable vote by two-thirds of the majority present, meaning that Democratic votes will once again be key.
The Senate Majority Leader has indicated that he will take up the bill once it is received from the House, but various Senators may want to offer amendments to the omnibus. That means a final Senate vote on the six-bill, $1.2 trillion package wouldn't come until Sunday or Monday. Even though the funding provided under the current continuing resolution expires at midnight tomorrow, a weekend shutdown is not anticipated.
Additional Information:
• A summary of the second omnibus appropriations package from the House Appropriations Committee
• A summary of the DHS provisions from the Senate Appropriations Committee
• Bill text
• Explanatory statement for the Department of Homeland Security
