Amodei Remarks at FY26 Homeland Security Bill Subcommittee Markup (As Prepared For Delivery)

June 9, 2025
Remarks

Welcome to the Subcommittee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. I would like to welcome Full Committee Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro, Subcommittee Ranking Member Underwood, and all the Members of the Subcommittee. I will hold my comments until the end, so I’ll begin by recognizing the distinguished gentlelady from Illinois, Ms. Underwood for her opening comments.

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I would first like to thank the Members of the Subcommittee for their participation and insightful questions during our budget hearings last month. As we put together the bill and report, we made a concerted effort to address as many Member priorities as possible. The bill before us today provides $66.3 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion above fiscal year 2025, and $26.5 billion for major disaster response and recovery activities. 

The turn around on the border since President Trump took office has been profound. What was once policy-driven chaos under Biden, quickly turned into the lowest numbers of crossings in recorded history. You can never say mission accomplished in this business, but we are off to a strong start. Now, we have to make investments to sustain the progress we’ve made in border security and immigration enforcement.

So we fund:

  • 22,000 Border Patrol Agents and provides flexibility for recruitment and retention bonuses.
  • $346 million, a record level of funding, for border security technology;
  • 50,000 detention beds and increases to transportation operations, so that ICE can fulfill the Trump Administration’s priority of detaining and deporting all criminal and removable aliens;

We increase the Coast Guard’s capacity in a cost-effective manner by providing: 

  • $100 million for long range unmanned aircraft;
  • $40 million for unmanned maritime systems; and
  • $20 to establish the Technology Optimization and Modernization Fund. 

In terms of cyber security, DHS has an important role to play defending critical infrastructure and Federal networks against cyber attack, but CISA strayed from the authority given to it by the Congress. We have responsibly trimmed that agency’s budget by eliminated duplicative contracts and positions, consolidated election security and chemical security missions into the existing critical infrastructure security framework, defunded equity positions, and returned the focus of CISA to its core mission of protecting Federal networks, and ensuring that the days of censorship through mis, dis, and mal information efforts are over. This bill ensures that we fund the mission of the Department that protects the Homeland. I want to thank the staff on the subcommittee, both on the majority and minority, for their hard work on the bill and report. 

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