HR8029-119

What This Bill Does

The Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act is a fiscal year 2026 homeland-security appropriations bill with extensive conditions on how money may be used. It incorporates the House Appropriations explanatory statement for H.R. 7147, appropriates DHS funding for the fiscal year, and requires DHS headquarters to give Congress grant, contract, transfer, quarterly acquisition, pilot-program, intelligence-activity, inspector-general, and Public Law 119-21 oversight information. It adds $20 million for DHS body-worn cameras for immigration-enforcement agents and officers.

For border and immigration operations, the bill keeps overtime limits, makes CBP operations and procurement funds available for customs expenses, credits authorized fee collections to CBP, adds $31 million to CBP operations, protects personal importation of up to a 90-day supply of Canadian prescription drugs, blocks crude-oil Strategic Petroleum Reserve Jones Act waivers unless U.S.-flag vessel protections are addressed, bars new land border crossing fees, restricts nonautonomous border-surveillance systems, requires CBP standards for pregnant, postpartum, nursing, and infant detainees, conditions ICE 287(g) agreements and detention contracts on Inspector General or performance findings, requires ICE obligation plans and monthly updates, preserves overseas ICE attaches, and requires senior federal officials to go through TSA passenger and baggage screening. It also allows aviation-security capital funds for explosives detection systems, supports Coast Guard operations and housing, adds $98 million for Coast Guard MQ-9 aircraft while barring kinetic long-range unmanned aircraft, supports Secret Service travel and National Computer Forensics Institute facilities, and adjusts overtime pay treatment.

For cybersecurity, disaster, immigration-services, and training programs, the bill allows CISA threat-feed access for federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, fusion-center, and information-sharing users. It caps certain FEMA grant administrative costs at 5 percent, speeds applications and briefings for FEMA assistance grants, treats communications towers differently from building construction for certain grants, continues Disaster Relief Fund reporting, permits SAFER and Assistance to Firefighter grant waivers, transfers prior mitigation and flood-map balances into current FEMA accounts, sets grant periods of performance at 36 months, and generally prevents FEMA training or grant pauses without notice. It lets USCIS use funds for replacement vehicles and virtual biometrics, preserves federal-employee service work against A-76 competitions, supports FLETC accreditation and special-use facility transfers, and imposes departmentwide reprogramming, Buy American, facility, travel, worker-eligibility, contractor-fee, firearms, records, Technology Modernization Fund, Chinese military-company, Guantanamo transfer, migrant-estimate, and detention/removal-estimate controls.

The bill also moves money outside DHS. It requires at least $5 million for ICE support of the Blue Campaign against human trafficking, adds $30 million for Supreme Court salaries and expenses, adds $140 million for FAA Air Traffic Organization activities tied to a possible 3.8 percent 2026 pay increase for air traffic controllers and managers if operational efficiencies are achieved, transfers $99.75 million from Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act CISA Cybersecurity Response and Recovery Fund balances into CISA operations, rescinds specified DHS unobligated balances across management, CBP, CISA, FEMA, TSA, Secret Service, USCIS, Science and Technology, and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction accounts, rescinds $2.362 million from the DHS Nonrecurring Expenses Fund, and ratifies obligations made under continuing appropriations for essential activity and orderly shutdown functions.

Who Benefits and How

DHS enforcement officers benefit from $20 million for body-worn camera procurement and deployment. People in CBP or DHS custody benefit from pregnancy, postpartum, infant-care, restraint, record-preservation, abuse-record, and evidence-access restrictions. Individual travelers benefit because CBP may not use bill funds to block qualifying personal-use Canadian prescription drug imports and DHS may not impose new pedestrian, cyclist, driver, or passenger land-border crossing fees. U.S.-flag maritime operators benefit from limits on crude-oil Strategic Petroleum Reserve navigation-law waivers. Autonomous border-surveillance vendors benefit because CBP border-security funds cannot buy nonautonomous systems. Coast Guard aviation vendors benefit from $98 million for MQ-9 aircraft and base stations. State fire departments and local fire departments benefit from FEMA waiver authority for SAFER and Assistance to Firefighter grants. CISA threat-feed recipients benefit from authority to provide cybersecurity threat feeds to federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, fusion-center, and information-sharing organizations. National Computer Forensics Institute facilities benefit from $2 million through Secret Service grants or cooperative agreements. FAA air traffic controllers benefit if the FAA Administrator determines operational efficiencies justify a 3.8 percent 2026 pay increase funded by the $140 million supplemental.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DHS headquarters, the DHS Chief Financial Officer, DHS Inspector General, Under Secretary for Management, and DHS component budget offices must give Congress recurring spending, transfer, acquisition, pilot, obligation, and oversight reports. CBP, ICE, TSA, Coast Guard, Secret Service, CISA, FEMA, USCIS, and FLETC managers must follow account-specific limits on fees, contracts, detention services, unmanned aircraft, grant administration, biometrics, training accreditation, reprogramming, and facility actions. ICE detention contractors face loss of federal funding if recent performance evaluations are below adequate. Local 287(g) partners face funding restrictions if the DHS Inspector General finds material violations. Nonautonomous border-surveillance vendors, armed long-range drone suppliers, entities identified under NDAA section 1260H, contractors with unsatisfactory performance, agencies seeking Technology Modernization Fund projects, and officials seeking exemptions from TSA screening bear restrictions. Federal budget managers must absorb account rescissions and transfers while continuing to document migrant arrival estimates, detention and removal estimates, and grant or training pauses.

Key Provisions

• Appropriates fiscal year 2026 DHS funding and gives the H.R. 7147 explanatory statement allocation and implementation effect.
• Requires DHS grant, contract, transfer, acquisition, pilot, intelligence, ICE obligation, migrant-arrival, detention-removal, and FEMA reporting to congressional appropriators.
• Appropriates $20 million for DHS body-worn cameras, $31 million for CBP operations, $98 million for Coast Guard MQ-9 aircraft, $2 million for National Computer Forensics Institute facilities, at least $5 million for the ICE Blue Campaign, $30 million for the Supreme Court, and $140 million for FAA controller pay-related operations.
• Bars new land border crossing fees, qualifying personal-use Canadian prescription drug import interference, certain crude-oil navigation waivers, nonautonomous border-surveillance procurement, weak ICE detention contracts, and continued 287(g) agreements after material violations.
• Requires CBP pregnancy and infant-custody standards and DHS restrictions on restraints, record destruction, worker eligibility, contractor incentive fees, firearms transfers, Technology Modernization Fund proposals, and Guantanamo detainee transfers.
• Expands or preserves CISA threat-feed access, FEMA grant administration authority, firefighter grant waivers, flood-map and predisaster mitigation balance transfers, USCIS virtual biometrics, FLETC accreditation, and employee emergency backup care.
• Rescinds specified unobligated DHS balances, transfers $99.75 million from CISA Cybersecurity Response and Recovery Fund balances, and ratifies obligations made under continuing appropriations for essential services.