Agency Budget

Agency Budget

Homeland security is a state agency of the United States government whose primary mission is to secure America, American people, and its values – with honor and integrity. The department has over 240,000 employees with wide-ranging duties all aimed at collaboratively and individually securing the United States from the threats if faces. Security is a critical component in a nation, and thus, in the President’s Budget presented to the Congress every year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gets a substantial allocation to finance its activities. The Management Directorate is a vital component of DHS responsible for budget appropriations, expenditure and funds, accounting and finance, and performance tracking.

DHS programs promote the security of the United States despite their variations in terms of execution. The substantial number of programs under the jurisdiction of DHS requires it delegate to several other agencies supporting its mission. Significant programs include immigration services, border protection, cybersecurity, emergency management, law enforcement training, transportation security, weapon control, intelligence services, and research (Radvanovsk & McDougall, 2018). Information from various components of DHS is made available for the decision-making process by the office of operation coordination daily to senior leaders, secretary of the department, and significant actors supporting the agency’s mission.

The increasing number of threats facing the nation is evident in the increased budgetary allocation for the Department of Homeland Security (McElreath et al., 2017). In the fiscal year 2020, a significant rise in the agency’s budget aims at securing the nation’s borders, supporting the frontline personnel, and combating the emerging threats and hazards. The 2020 budget requests $51.7 billion in discretionary funding and an additional $19.4 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund compared to $47.5 billion in discretionary budget authority for last year – 8.7 % increase.

Security-based expenses are the most significant object of expenditure in the fiscal year 2020’s budget for the agency. To promote border and maritime security, the agency requests $5.0 billion for the construction of border wall systems for about 200 miles (Department of Homeland Security, 2020). Additionally, other budgetary requests include $232 million and $1.2 billion for migrant care and recapitalization of United States Coast Guard resources, respectively. DHS also requests $1.3 billion to ensure the nation’s cybersecurity and infrastructure is free from potential harm. A funding request of $28.5 billion is also necessary for the emergency management and recovery programs.

A budget is an essential tool for measuring an organization’s operations performance because it has relevant financial data useful in evaluation.  It does not only provide means to measure but also control resources allocated. The absence of demand and supply influence in government agencies may compromise the quality and quantity of services provided. Thus, the budget enforces restrictions aiming at streamlining operations and programs not subject to competitive market forces. An increase of 7.8% in 2019 and 8.7% in 2020 indicates that the agency is productive, given the operations it funds and their attainment of individual goals towards achieving a secure nation. The maturation of agency components such as Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the increased number of transport security officers is evident in the agency’s performance based on its budgetary appropriation.

Information on individual agency’s components such as expenditure for the previous years and accomplishments is critical towards critical analysis of agency performance. Superficial analysis into the DHS budget may compromise accuracy and render the information insignificant for decision-making and future planning. A detailed analysis of budget requests against expenditure for all DHS components is a significant basis to evaluate budget implementation and performance. Similarly, the criteria are useful in the determination of high-priority programs in the department, enhancing efficiency and relevance of its operations toward the overall attainment of its mission – to secure the United States.

References

McElreath, D. H., Doss, D. A., Nations, R., Van Slyke, J., & Wigginton Jr, M. (2017). Introduction to homeland security. CRC Press.

President’s Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Fortifies DHS Operations, Supports Frontline Personnel, Secures Our Borders & Confronts Emerging Threats. Retrieved from: https://www.dhs.gov/news/2019/03/18/president-s-fiscal-year-2020-budget

Radvanovsky, R. S., & McDougall, A. (2018). Critical infrastructure: homeland security and emergency preparedness. CRC press.