The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OB3A) was passed into law on July 4, 2025, allocating billions of dollars to numerous Trump Administration priorities. While top-line values for which programs received funding increases have been well known for months, additional details have become available providing additional insights into exactly where and when specific funding amounts will be made available to CBP’s program offices. The recent release of the FY2027 DHS Congressional Budget Justification provides additional detail on how the funding provided by the OB3A is planned to accumulate with or replace annual CBP appropriations to create a holistic view of the funding environment over the coming years.
Well-known highlights of the OB3A funding increases for CBP programs include the following:
- $46.5 billion for border wall system construction and technology
- $4.1 billion for hiring additional Border Patrol, Office of Field Operations, and Office of Air & Marine agents plus $2 billion for hiring and retention bonuses
- $855 million for repair and acquisition of patrol unit vehicles
- $5 billion for facilities improvements at CBP checkpoints and facilities
- $6.2 billion for border security, technology, and screening
These funding increases represent the most significant influx to CBP in history, cumulatively increasing CBP’s total budget authority from approximately $23 billion per year to over $50 billion today. The following tables show how these funds are to be allocated over a three-year period, as well as both enacted and forecasted amounts of annual appropriations through FY2027. Importantly, these tables show when funding is becoming available to agencies – CBP can’t access OB3A funding amount until the beginning of these fiscal years.
This analysis will focus predominantly on the PC&I budget. Overall, the PC&I allocation increases CBP’s procurement budget from approximately $850M annually to over $25 billion in FY2026. A large portion of this funding is dedicated to the border barrier system, but significant investments are planned in many other areas as well.
Overall, the PC&I allocation increases CBP’s procurement budget from approximately $850M annually to over $25 billion in FY2026. A large portion of this funding is dedicated to the border barrier system, but significant investments are planned in many other areas as well. In the following tables we will look at each PC&I account in greater detail to understand specific areas of investment and the years that funding is available showing the accumulation of annual regular appropriations (blue) and specific program funding from the OB3A (white).
Border Barrier System: While “wall” funding still makes up the majority of the OB3A investment in the barrier system, a significant proportion of funding ($16.5 billion) is dedicated to waterborne buoy barrier, and over $6 billion is intended to fund surveillance and detection technology integrated into the barrier system between FY2025 and FY2027. Technology elements of the barrier system include tunnel detection, breach detection, and camera/surveillance technologies (entitled “system attributes”).
Border Surveillance Technology: The OB3A pumps $2.6 billion into CBP’s current surveillance technology programs. Based on existing contracts for this type of technology, it is reasonable to expect significant investment in Autonomous Surveillance Towers (AST), Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT), and CBP’s mobile surveillance capability (MSC).
The FY2027 budget request did not include any funding for border security assets. This indicates that the OB3A funding likely represents the entirety of border security investments in the near future.
Non-Intrusive Inspection: The OB3A represents another historic investment in the NII program of almost $1 billion between FY2025 and FY2027, with most of the funding available beginning in FY2027. This funding may be spent on both system and deployment costs as well as AI and other technologies to facilitate screening of cargo and vehicles. The FY2027 budget request did not include any funding for NII, but CBP is receiving $21 million for radiation detection systems due to the re-assignment of resources from CWMD.
Biometric Entry/Exit: According to recent statements, these investments will focus on expanding facial biometrics collection across all modes of travel. A recent final rule allows CBP to expand biometric collection to new transportation modalities, including sea exit, private aircraft, vehicle entry/exit, and pedestrian exit.
Unspecified Investment: While it is not clear how this vague category of funds will be spent, areas of the legislation that are not specifically addressed by other funding categories include:
- Screening of persons entering the United States
- Initial screenings of unaccompanied children consistent with law
- Enhancing border security by combatting drug trafficking, including fentanyl and precursors
Unlike the border security account that predominantly funds Border Patrol, the FY2027 budget request does include additional funding for procurement. The majority of requested funds are dedicated to continued modernization of the ACE system ($101 million) and Counter-UAS technology at ports of entry ($80 million).
UAS & Counter-UAS: The OB3A infuses over $400 million into the CBP UAS program currently dominated by the MQ-9, $30 million into Medium UAS demonstrations, and $30 million into counter-UAS capabilities. The FY2027 budget request includes a total of $87 million in counter-UAS capabilities as well, creating a total new budget for these capabilities of over $100 million between FY2025 and FY2027.
HC-130J: CBP received funding for one specialized C-130 aircraft with integrated mission systems through the OB3A, and has requested another $155 million in the FY2027 budget request for another. The language in the request specifically links the purchase of these airframes to replacement of CBP’s ageing fleet of P-3 maritime patrol aircraft, indicating the intent to embark on a major recapitalization program. CBP currently maintains a fleet of 14 P-3s.
