Senate Appropriations Approves FY 2013 DHS Funding Legislation

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved May 22, 2012, FY2013 funding legislation for the Department of Homeland Security, totaling $45.2 billion in discretionary budget authority, a reduction of $1 billion below the FY 2012 level. According to the Senate committee's press release, the bill would provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection $11.973 billion, $378 million above fiscal year 2012. The Senate and House must still approve the appropriations bills. This level would:

• Fund 21,370 Border Patrol agents, sustaining the increased levels approved in the fiscal year 2010 Supplemental and 21,186 CBP officers working at the ports of entry;
• Add $71 million above the request for procurement, operations, and maintenance of critical air and marine assets used to defend our borders -- including one additional multi-role enforcement aircraft, enhanced radar for unmanned aircraft systems, and $19 million to increase flight hours to 96,000 hours -- the fiscal year 2011 level; and
• $2 million for officer and agent integrity programs, including polygraph testing.
• Jones Act: The bill continues a provision prohibiting waiver of the Jones Act for transporting releases of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the DHS Secretary, after consultation with the Secretaries of the Departments of Energy and Transportation and representatives from the U.S. flag maritime industry, takes adequate measures to ensure the use of U.S. flag vessels. The Secretary must also notify the Congress within two business days of any request for waivers. CBP also is directed to develop a system to track the status of all Jones Act violations, and to regularly report to Congress on specific Jones Act violations, findings of fact, parties found to be at fault, amount of penalty assessments, and status of collections.

(See ITT's Online Archives 12050901 for summary of the House DHS appropriations bill.)