As the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Homeland Security Appropriations makes its way through Congress, we’re taking a look at CBP’s budget request for the upcoming fiscal year starting in October. This process is separate from the current, hotly debated reconciliation bill that passed the Senate today.
While the agency’s appropriations do not have as direct an impact on the trade community as trade policy, reviewing the budget can provide insight into the agency’s priorities, progress on major initiatives, and infrastructure and technology investments that span fiscal years and even administrations.
Appropriations process
CBP’s FY26 budget request can be found in its Congressional Budget Justification. During the appropriations process for each fiscal year, each federal agency must prepare a budget request to Congress detailing the rationale for the requested funding levels. These requests are submitted to the OMB and White House, which then develop the President’s budget proposal. This budget proposal is submitted to Congress and divided among 12 subcommittees responsible for funding for different government functions. Separate budget resolutions are created in the House and Senate, but eventually both houses must pass a single version of each funding bill for final approval by the President.
The funding levels proposed in CBP’s budget request may therefore not be what is ultimately approved; however, the value is that they reflect the priorities of the agency as well as metrics on what has happened in the last fiscal year.
Key takeaways
Below are the notable initiatives and programs included in CBP’s requested funding levels.
- Personnel. $122.9M for an additional 450 CBP Officers at Ports of Entry:
- CBP Officers are under the Office of Field Operations (OFO) and are responsible for trade and travel operations at U.S. Ports of Entry. There were no significant proposed changes to staffing levels of other major offices in CBP, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) and Air and Marine Operations (AMO).
- Duty & Fee Collection Systems. Cuts $4.7M from payment system upgrades.
- CBP collects over $2.5B annually at Ports of Entry. Despite the cuts, CBP plans to deploy ACH payment capability for broker and maritime collections via the eCBP Portal and complete rollout of credit card capabilities to another 15 port locations
- Technology & IT Systems. Proposed changes to technology initiatives relevant to trade operations included:
- $29.2M for continued sustainment of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), including improvements to “allow for the deployment of stakeholder requested enhancements and legislative requirements, such as increases in tariff collections from Canada, Mexico, and China.”
- $1M for Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives to improve processing time of cargo truck containers, provider higher quality code in software development, and expedite innovation in ACE.
- $10M decrease in IT Infrastructure and Business Support, primarily due to cost savings from software licenses that are no longer required.
- Trade Infrastructure: Non-Intrusive Inspection. The ongoing deployment of pre-primary scanning has been the most notable investment in trade infrastructure and equipment. Managed by the Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) systems division, this program deploys large-scale scanning systems aimed at improving the detection of illicit goods within cargo and conveyances, while increasing the speed of inspection and clearance by scanning vehicles prior to interacting with a CBPO.
- $320M was requested in total for the NII program.
- By the end of FY25, 69 large-scale NII systems were deployed at 23 locations (67 on the southwest border and 2 on the northern border).
- Planned milestones for FY26 are the deployment of 84 more systems, as well as beginning the national rollout of a common integration platform and expanding AI capabilities of NII systems.
- Trade Infrastructure: Radiation Portal Monitors. RPMs are used at U.S. land and sea Ports of Entry to scan cargo and conveyances to prevent smuggling of radiological/nuclear threats.
- $13.9M is requested for the RPM Replacement Program, aimed at upgrading equipment and reducing nuisance alarms at specific high-volume Ports of Entry.
- Construction & Facility Improvements.
- LaColle Pre-Clearance Facility in Overton/Cannon Corners, New York – this facility is a joint program between CBP and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to collocate personnel to provide partnered support and enhance the facilitation of lawful trade at this border crossing by eliminating redundant inspections.
