- DHS wants $11.7 billion for IT, second-most among civilian agencies
- New counter-drone money at CBP, Coast Guard and FEMA
- More than 50 DHS and industry leaders will speak at 2026 Homeland Security Summit
The Department of Homeland Security is asking for $118.39 billion in total budget authority for fiscal year 2027, including $99.39 billion in gross discretionary funding, under the administration’s request released April 3. On top of that, DHS still has billions in multi-year reconciliation funding to spend. Together they create a deep pool of opportunity for contractors working in border technology, cybersecurity, counter-drone systems and IT modernization.
Congress has not yet passed a full-year FY27 DHS appropriation. The department is operating under a continuing resolution that runs through Dec. 11. That timing makes the Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Homeland Security Summit on Nov. 10 a valuable checkpoint for industry. Attendees will hear from the DHS officials who will spend this money, including leaders from Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Register for the 2026 Homeland Security Summit now before tickets sell out like last year!
How Big Is DHS’ FY27 Budget Request?
The $99.39 billion gross discretionary request is $1.45 billion above the FY26 request. Its largest single line is $28.38 billion for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, the most ever requested for the fund and more than the ICE and Transportation Security Administration budgets combined.
Operations and support accounts make up about 61 percent of the request, at $60.87 billion. Procurement, construction and improvements, the account DHS uses to buy and deploy new systems and assets, totals $2.95 billion. Research and development accounts for $375 million.
How Does the FY27 Request Compare With FY26?
DHS built the FY27 request before its FY26 appropriations law was enacted April 30. That law also left out annual funding for ICE and the U.S. Border Patrol, so a department-wide year-over-year comparison is imperfect. Components with full FY26 enacted figures show steady growth:
- Coast Guard: $14.15 billion, up 7.5 percent from $13.17 billion. Operations and support rises $1.46 billion over the FY26 request.
- Secret Service: $3.45 billion, up 6.2 percent. The request funds 520 new special agents, 256 Uniformed Division positions and 50 Technical Law Enforcement agents.
- FEMA: $32.76 billion, up 1.5 percent, with the Disaster Relief Fund up 7.6 percent.
- DHS headquarters: $4.67 billion for a proposed consolidated Office of the Secretary and Executive Management, up 4.7 percent.
- Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers: $418 million, up 4.9 percent.
CBP’s request totals $18.9 billion and ICE’s totals $10.04 billion. Reconciliation funds would cover a larger share of both agencies’ costs.
The request also proposes reductions at some components. CISA’s total would come in about $118 million below its FY26 enacted level. TSA’s workforce would shrink through expanded screening privatization. The Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office would be eliminated, with its functions moving to CISA, CBP and other components.
Two leaders behind these numbers keynote the Homeland Security Summit:
- Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar opens the event. He testified on the FY27 request before the House Homeland Security Committee alongside DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
- Secret Service Director Sean Curran delivers the afternoon keynote as his agency looks to add more than 800 agents and officers.
Both may discuss where the department’s priorities are headed in FY27.
Hear from Edgar and Curran at the 2026 Homeland Security Summit!
How Does Reconciliation Funding Add to DHS’ Budget?
The annual request is only part of DHS’ resources. The FY25 reconciliation law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, gave DHS $191.02 billion in mandatory funding. Most of it is available through FY29 and sits outside the annual appropriations process, so Congress does not have to renew it each year.
That money is spread across seven components:
- CBP: $64.73 billion
- ICE: $74.85 billion
- Coast Guard: $24.59 billion
- FEMA: $12.88 billion
- Office of the Secretary: $12.06 billion
- Secret Service: $1.17 billion
- FLETC: $750 million
About $41.46 billion of CBP’s projected FY26 reconciliation obligations go to border security assets and infrastructure. A second reconciliation law enacted this year added more multi-year funding for CBP, ICE and the Office of the Secretary.
CBP and ICE, the two largest reconciliation recipients, are sending about a dozen officials to the 2026 Homeland Security Summit, including:
- Casey Durst, CBP’s executive assistant commissioner for operations support, will sit for Protecting the Homeland from Complex Security Threats. Russ Hott, assistant director of ICE’s ERO Public Safety Partnership Division, and Nael Samha (pending confirmation), executive director of CBP’s Targeting and Analysis Systems Program Directorate, join her on that panel.
- Ruynard Singleton, executive director of CBP’s PMO Directorate, joins a panel on edge capabilities for the border and national events.
They will likely discuss how the reconciliation dollars are being put to work.
How Much Is DHS Spending on IT and Technology?
The White House budget pegs DHS IT spending at $11.7 billion, second among civilian agencies behind only the Department of Veterans Affairs, FedScoop reported. Overall, the administration requested a record $75.7 billion civilian IT budget, up from $67.9 billion in FY26.
DHS has no single IT account, so its technology investments are spread across component budgets:
- CBP: $136 million for the Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE, the trade processing system, plus $322 million for counter-drug technology. Reconciliation dollars will also fund procurement of advanced border security technology.
- Secret Service: $1.2 billion for protective technology and enhanced protective operations.
- TSA: Procurement funding rises 32.7 percent over the FY26 request, including a $41 million increase for checked baggage screening and $20 million for e-Gates.
- CISA: $420 million in procurement funding, more than 95 percent of it for cybersecurity, and a new $44 million R&D line for research moving over from CWMD. CISA’s total request is 4.6 percent above the FY26 request.
- Science and Technology Directorate: R&D funding rises $15 million over the FY26 request, driven by new projects in its Cyber, Infrastructure and National Resiliency activity.
- Management Directorate: A $39 million increase for human resources IT.
The House version of the bill adds $31 million for CISA to hire mission-critical staff to counter foreign adversaries, plus $11.3 million for enhanced cybersecurity protections under the Management Directorate, CyberScoop reported.
Many of the officials overseeing this portfolio will speak at the Homeland Security Summit:
- Data and identity: CBP Chief Data Officer Michelle Zebrowski joins One Mission, Many Components: Building a Federated DHS Data and Identity Fabric.
- Technology validation: Jay Alalasundaram, CBP’s deputy assistant commissioner for software applications and services, joins Mission Ready: Building Trust Through Technology Validation with S&T’s Julie Brewer.
- AI and investigations: Secret Service CIO Chris Kraft and CBP Executive Director Baibhav “BoBo” Devkota take on AI and investigative intelligence. ICE Acting Deputy CIO Robert Thorne is also slated to speak.
- Cybersecurity: CISA’s Bobby Thompson, acting associate director for threat hunting, is set to deliver a morning keynote. CISA Acting Deputy Chief Technology Officer Lauren Wind and Daryle Hernandez, head of the Interagency Security Committee, are also speaking.
- Management: Karen Evans, a former DHS CIO who now directs the department’s Waste, Fraud and Abuse Task Force, is part of the Mission Confidence: Building Trust in Homeland Security Technologies session.
Hear from DHS technology leaders at the 2026 Homeland Security Summit!
Where Is DHS Investing in Drones and Counter-Drone Tech?
Mullin has called drone proliferation one of DHS’ most pressing security concerns.
“We’re seeing more drone technology, so we’re adapting, and we definitely need more resources,” Mullin told Congress, GovCIO Media reported.
The FY27 request backs that up with new drone and counter-drone funding:
- Coast Guard: $69.1 million for unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, and $22.2 million for counter-UAS. Reconciliation funding adds $266 million for the service’s own MQ-9 fleet.
- CBP: $80 million for counter-UAS, plus a $3 million increase for cost escalation and more flight hours in its UAS program.
- FEMA: A $500 million counter-UAS grant program funded through reconciliation, with the remaining dollars going to states and territories in FY27.
DHS has also built a contract vehicle to put that money to work. In August, the department named 12 companies to its $1.5 billion counter-UAS IDIQ. It has two tracks: hardware and software, with a $1.01 billion ceiling, and services, with a $489 million ceiling.
Steven Willoughby took over in July as executive director of the Science and Technology Directorate’s Program Executive Office for UAS and Counter-UAS. He previously spent six years as deputy director of DHS’ counter-UAS program in the Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans and served on the National Security Council as director for aviation and surface transportation.
Willoughby will share insights during the Safeguarding the Homeland: Coordination for Counter-UAS Operations panel at the 2026 Homeland Security Summit. He’ll be joined on that panel by:
- Anthony “Tony” Crane, executive director of CBP’s counter-UAS Defense Capability Group
- Cathy Lanier, senior vice president and chief security officer of the NFL
- Christopher Ling, CEO of Ericsson Federal
- LMI’s Mary Rupert, moderating
Other drone and counter-drone speakers include:
- Capt. Chad Brick, inaugural chief of the Coast Guard’s CG-RAPTOR, who joins the technology validation panel.
- Scott St. Pierre, Coast Guard CIO.
- Erik Grant of CACI, a counter-UAS IDIQ awardee, on the “Code and Drones” lunch panel.
Hear from DHS counter-drone leaders on Nov. 10!
Where Does the FY27 DHS Budget Stand in Congress?
The House Appropriations Committee approved its FY27 DHS bill, H.R. 9310, on June 12 by a 34-27 vote. The bill carries $99.63 billion in discretionary funding, about $230 million above the request. House appropriators’ bill summary lists $14.6 billion for the Coast Guard and $34.1 billion for FEMA, both above the administration’s request.
The Senate Appropriations Committee had not marked up its version as of Sept. 30. With the CR set to expire Dec. 11, the 2026 Homeland Security Summit lands about a month before the next funding deadline. That gives attendees a timely look at how DHS leaders are planning for FY27.
Why Should GovCons Attend the Homeland Security Summit?
The 2026 Homeland Security Summit takes place Nov. 10 at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia, with more than 50 speakers from across DHS and industry. Alongside the officials above, attendees can hear from leaders at MANTECH, SAIC, Peraton, AT&T, Nokia Federal Solutions, Databricks and more. Networking sessions run throughout the day.
