For Immediate Release
DHS Press Office
Contact: 202-282-8010
WASHINGTON—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today unveiled the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget request of $39.0 billion in net discretionary funding. An additional $5.6 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) is provided separately, pursuant to the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). Recognizing the current fiscal environment, the Department’s net discretionary amount is 2 percent below the FY 2012 enacted level.
“After 10 years of effort, DHS has transformed 22 agencies from across the Federal Government into a single integrated Department, building a strengthened homeland security enterprise and a more secure America better equipped to confront the range of threats we face,” said Secretary Napolitano. “The Department’s FY 2014 budget request preserves core frontline priorities while making critical investments to grow the economy and secure the homeland.”
The FY 2014 budget request includes $1.3 billion in savings from administrative and mission support areas, including contracts, information technology, travel, personnel moves, overtime, directed purchasing, professional services, and vehicle management. Through the Department-wide Efficiency Review, which began in 2009, as well as other cost-saving initiatives, DHS has identified over $4 billion in cost avoidances and reductions, and redeployed those funds to mission-critical initiatives across the Department.
The Budget builds on the progress the Department has made in each of its mission areas while strengthening existing capabilities, enhancing partnerships across all levels of government and with the private sector, streamlining operations, and increasing efficiencies.
FY 2014 Budget Priorities:
Preventing Terrorism and Enhancing Security - Guarding against terrorist attacks was the founding mission of DHS and remains our top priority. To address evolving threats and ensure the safety of the traveling public, the Budget safeguards the Nation’s transportation systems through a layered detection system and continues to support risk-based security initiatives, including TSA Pre✓™, Global Entry and other known traveler programs. The Budget supports Administration efforts to secure maritime cargo and the global supply chain by strengthening efforts to prescreen and evaluate high-risk cargo. Investments in DHS’s intelligence and targeting programs, coupled with the expansion of the National Targeting Center, will increase operational efficiencies and enhance our ability to interdict threats and dangerous people before they reach the United States.
Funding is also included for cutting edge research and development to address evolving biological, radiological and nuclear threats. Among the important research investments is the construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a state-of-the-art bio-containment facility for the study of foreign animal and emerging zoonotic diseases that will replace the inadequate facility at Plum Island. The Budget funds the Securing the Cities program to protect our highest risk cities from radiological or nuclear attack and continues national bio-preparedness and response efforts. The Budget also continues strong support for state and local partners through the National Preparedness Grant Program, training, fusion centers, and intelligence analysis and information sharing on a wide range of critical homeland security issues.
Securing and Managing Our Borders - The FY 2014 Budget continues the Administration’s robust border security efforts, while facilitating legitimate travel and trade. It sustains historic deployments of personnel along U.S. borders as well as the continued utilization of proven, effective surveillance technology along the highest trafficked areas of the Southwest Border to continue achieving record levels of apprehensions and seizures. In support of the President’s Executive Order on Travel and Tourism, the Budget funds a record number of more than 25,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs) through appropriated funds and proposed increases to user fee rates in order to expedite travel and trade while reducing wait times at more than 300 ports of entry (POEs) along the border and at airports and seaports across the country.
To secure the Nation’s maritime borders and 3.4 million nautical square miles of maritime territory, the Budget invests in recapitalization of U.S. Coast Guard assets including the seventh National Security Cutter and Fast Response Cutters and continues acquisitions of the Offshore Patrol Cutter and a new polar ice breaker.
Enforcing and Administering Our Immigration Laws - In the area of immigration, the Budget supports the Administration’s unprecedented efforts to more effectively focus the enforcement system on public safety threats, border security and the integrity of the immigration system while streamlining and facilitating the legal immigration process. Initiatives such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and greater use of prosecutorial discretion, where appropriate, support DHS efforts to focus finite resources on individuals who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety, and other high priority cases. At the same time, the Budget makes significant reductions to inefficient 287(g) task force agreements, while supporting more cost efficient initiatives like the Secure Communities program. Nationwide implementation of Secure Communities and other enforcement initiatives, coupled with continued collaboration with the Department of Justice to focus resources on the detained docket, is expected to result in the continued increase in the identification and removal of criminal aliens and other priority individuals. The Budget provides the resources needed to address this changing population, while continuing to support Alternatives to Detention, detention reform, and immigrant integration efforts. Resources are also focused on monitoring and compliance, promoting adherence to worksite-related laws, Form I-9 inspections, and enhancements to the E-Verify program.
Safeguarding and Securing Cyberspace - The FY 2014 Budget supports initiatives to secure our Nation’s information and financial systems and to defend against cyber threats to private sector and Federal systems, the Nation’s critical infrastructure, and the U.S. economy. It also supports the President’s Executive Order on Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity and Presidential Policy Directive on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. Taken together, the Administration’s initiatives strengthen the security and resilience of critical infrastructure against evolving threats through an updated and overarching national framework that acknowledges the linkage between cybersecurity and securing physical assets.
Included in the Budget are enhancements to the National Cybersecurity Protection System to prevent and detect intrusions on government computer systems, and to the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center to protect against and respond to cybersecurity threats. The Budget also leverages a new operational partnership between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Secret Service (USSS) through the established network of USSS Electronic Crimes and Financial Crimes Task Forces to safeguard the Nation’s financial payment systems, combat cybercrimes, target transnational child exploitation including large-scale producers and distributors of child pornography, and prevent attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure.
Ensuring Resilience to Disasters - The Department’s efforts to build a ready and resilient Nation focuses on a whole community approach to emergency management by engaging partners at all levels to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency DHS provides the coordinated, comprehensive Federal response while working with Federal, state, local, and private sector partners to ensure a swift and effective recovery effort.
To support the objectives of the National Preparedness Goal and to leverage limited grant funding in the current fiscal environment, the Administration is again proposing the National Preparedness Grant Program to create a robust national response capacity based on cross-jurisdictional and readily deployable state and local assets, with appropriate adjustments to respond to stakeholder feedback received in 2012. While providing a structure that will give grantees more certainty about how funding will flow, the proposal continues to utilize a comprehensive process for assessing regional and national gaps, identifying and prioritizing deployable capabilities, and requiring grantees to regularly report progress in the acquisition and development of these capabilities.
The Budget also funds FEMA’s continued development of catastrophic plans, which include regional plans for response to earthquakes and hurricanes and medical countermeasure dispensing, and training for two million emergency managers and first responders.
For more information, visit www.dhs.gov.
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