The Biden-Harris Administration has submitted the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 to Congress, which provides US$62.2bn in discretionary funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The budget includes a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) fee proposal that, if enacted, would decrease the discretionary funding request by US$1.6bn.
The TSA portion of the budget includes US$1.5bn to ensure TSA employees do not suffer a pay differential. Since implementing pay parity in July 2023, TSA has already seen an 11% reduction in attrition, and is making gains in retaining what has historically been a workforce with high turnover. In anticipation of an increase in aviation passenger volume in FY 2025, the budget would also provide US$356m for additional transportation security officers to staff airport checkpoints and US$90m for checkpoint screening programs to more reliably detect aviation threats.
The FY 2025 budget would provide US$25.9bn to meet the core budget requirements of critical funding to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This funding would support CBP’s mission to protect the United States from acts of terrorism and criminality with efforts at and between ports of entry, including airports.
The budget sets aside US$418m for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office for its mission. This includes US$181m to fund programs supporting public and private sector organizations to improve technical capabilities and increase knowledge of CBRN threats.
Among other measures, the budget would also support efforts to advance the responsible use of artificial intelligence across DHS, as well as work to counter fentanyl trafficking and to protect against malicious cyber threats to critical infrastructure and federal networks.
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