Homeland Security Appropriations: FY2015 Action in the 114th Congress
Released: 2015-03-16T00:00:00

Introduction

This report provides a brief outline of the FY2015 annual appropriations measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its enactment by the 114 th Congress. It serves as a complement to CRS Report R43796, Department of Homeland Security: FY2015 Appropriations .

The first portion of this report outlines the legislative chronology of major events in the 114 th Congress related to funding the department for FY2015. The second portion provides an overview of DHS appropriations sought by the Administration and proposed by Congress at various stages of the FY2015 process.

Major Developments in the 114th Congress

Prior to the 114 th Congress, Congress had not enacted an FY2015 annual appropriations bill for DHS. As FY2014 drew to a close, senior appropriators indicated they would pursue an omnibus appropriations package in the lame duck session of the 113 th Congress, rather than stand-alone appropriations bills. The President signed an interim continuing resolution for FY2015 into law prior to the end of the fiscal year. After enactment of a second and third short-term continuing resolution, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, was signed into law as P.L. 113-235 on December 16, 2014. Congress did not include full annual funding for DHS as part of the package, but Division L of P.L. 113-235 provided an extension of continuing appropriations for the department through February 27, 2015.

The following descriptions reflect only the major actions taken on FY2015 homeland security appropriations in the 114 th Congress. For a more detailed description of the procedural actions taken, see CRS Report R43776, Congressional Action on FY2015 Appropriations Measures , by [author name scrubbed].

January 14, 2015—House Passes H.R. 240

H.R. 240, an annual appropriations bill which would provide DHS $39.7 billion in adjusted net discretionary budget authority, was introduced by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rogers on January 9, 2015. The bill was not reported out of committee prior to floor consideration, but an explanatory statement serving the same function as a committee report was posted on the House Appropriations Committee website the same day the bill was introduced and printed in the Congressional Record for January 13, 2015. The bill was considered under a structured rule on January 13 and 14, 2015. Under the structured rule, five amendments were made in order. Two were "Sense of Congress" amendments, expressing views on aspects of the Administration's immigration policy. Three would have affected the availability of funds for certain purposes that were provided by H.R. 240 , as well as in any other act in any fiscal year (these appeared as Sections 579, 580, and 581 in the House-passed bill).

The first of these three was an amendment that added a general provision that would restrict the use of any federal funds for carrying out the Administration's immigration initiative of November 2014, or implementing the direction in several memoranda on prosecutorial discretion and immigration enforcement priorities that were issued in 2011 and 2012. This amendment went on to state that the prohibition would extend to future similar policies, expressed that such policies would have no legal effect and that no funds may be used to grant any federal benefit to any alien as a result of those policies. The second of these three was an amendment to prohibit any federal funds from being used to consider new, renewal, or previously denied applications for temporary relief for removal under the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) program. The third amendment would have required, through a restriction on the use of funds, that DHS treat aliens convicted of any offense involving domestic violence, sexual abuse, child molestation, or child molestation as being among the group of aliens that are the highest priority for deportation.

After adopting these five amendments, the bill passed the House on January 14, 2015, by a vote of 236-191.

February 27, 2015—H.R. 240 Is Amended and Passes the Senate

The Senate proceeded to consider H.R. 240 on February 25, 2015. On February 27, 2015, the Senate adopted an amendment that was functionally the same as H.R. 240 as introduced—without the legislative text added by the five House amendments—by a vote of 66-33, then passed the Senate-amended bill by a vote of 68-31.

February 27, 2015—Senate and House Extend Continuing Resolution

On February 27, 2015, a three-week extension of the continuing resolution funding DHS ( H.J.Res. 35 ) did not pass the House by a vote of 203-224. Roughly three hours later, the Senate amended a House bill ( H.R. 33 ) to extend the continuing resolution through March 6, 2015, and passed the amended version by a voice vote. The House agreed to the Senate amendment by a vote of 357-60, and the President signed the bill into law as P.L. 114-3 that night.

March 3, 2015—House Agrees to the Senate Amendment

On March 3, 2015, the House voted 257-167 to approve the Senate version of H.R. 240 .

March 4, 2015—FY2015 Homeland Security Appropriations Enacted

On March 4, 2015, H.R. 240 was signed into law as P.L. 114-4 .

DHS Appropriations by Title

Generally, the homeland security appropriations bill includes all annual appropriations provided for DHS, providing resources to every departmental component. Table 2 includes a summary of funding included in the FY2014 regular DHS appropriations bill, the Administration's FY2015 appropriations request, the House- and Senate-reported FY2015 DHS appropriations bills, and P.L. 114-4 broken down by title.

DHS Appropriations: Comparing the Components

The various components of DHS vary widely in the size of their appropriated budgets. Table 3 and Figure 1 show DHS's new discretionary budget authority for FY2015 broken down by component, from largest to smallest appropriations request.

Total discretionary appropriations in Table 3 do not include resources provided through adjustments under the Budget Control Act (BCA) in the individual component lines. These are accounted for separately from the total discretionary appropriations and are displayed at the bottom of the table. As the table and figure reflect new discretionary budget authority, neither appropriated mandatory spending nor rescissions of prior-year budget authority are reflected in the component totals.

In Figure 1 , the first column of numbers shows budget authority provided in P.L. 113-76 , which included the FY2014 appropriations for DHS: resources available under the adjustments to the discretionary spending limits provided pursuant to the BCA are shown in black. The second column shows a similar breakdown for the FY2015 request, and the third and fourth columns show a similar breakdown of the FY2015 House- and Senate-reported bills. The fifth column shows the levels that provided under P.L. 114-4 .