House Homeland Security backs Secure America Act to extend CBP and ICE funding

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Secure America Act for CBP and ICE

Highlights

House Homeland Security Committee advances Secure America Act, proposing over $64 billion for CBP and ICE through FY 2029 to stabilize operations.
The bill allocates nearly $3.5 billion for modernizing border security technology, surveillance, and inspection to counter smuggling and transnational crime.
Legislation follows recent DHS appropriations lapses, which included a 76-day shutdown, highlighting risks to operational continuity and Congressional funding disputes.

Funding plan and border security scope

As reported by the House Committee on Homeland Security, Garbarino testified before the House Committee on Rules on June 8 in support of the legislation, saying the bill would deliver critical resources to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after repeated funding lapses at DHS.

The proposal provides more than $64 billion to hire, train, equip, and retain Border Patrol agents, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, Homeland Security Investigations agents, and support staff. Garbarino says the funding is intended to give frontline personnel stable operational backing through FY 2029.

He also says the bill includes nearly $3.5 billion to modernize border security technologies, surveillance systems, and inspection equipment. Those investments are intended to improve detection of human smuggling, fentanyl trafficking, weapons smuggling, illicit finance, and other activity tied to transnational criminal organizations.

Appropriations dispute and operational impact

Garbarino links the legislation to a broader fight over DHS funding after what he describes as two major lapses in appropriations during this Congress, including a 76-day shutdown. He says the interruptions created hardship for DHS employees and added pressure on critical components operating without stable budget support.

According to his testimony, President Trump signed H.R.7147 into law in April to fund most DHS operations, but CBP and ICE remained at the center of a partisan dispute. Garbarino says a previous bipartisan, bicameral appropriations agreement had included DHS funding as well as transparency and accountability provisions for CBP and ICE, including de-escalation training, body cameras, and increased support for the DHS Office of Inspector General.

He says annual funding through reconciliation is not the preferred approach, but argues Congress must provide the resources needed to secure the homeland and uphold regular order in the appropriations process. The testimony presents the Secure America Act as both a funding vehicle for border agencies and a response to the operational risks created by prolonged budget uncertainty.

Our earlier article on the House Rules Committee’s consideration of the Secure America Act outlined how lawmakers advanced a reconciliation package designed to fully fund ICE and CBP through FY 2029 amid recurring gaps in the regular appropriations process. It also noted the committee’s parallel push on oversight measures targeting improper federal payments, framing border-enforcement funding and fraud controls as part of the same legislative agenda.

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