Case's House Appropriations Committee Approves Fiscal Year 2023 Homeland Security Funding Measure

Press Release

Congressman Ed Case (HI-01) has announced approval by his U.S. House Committee on Appropriations of another of the twelve bills that will collectively fund the federal government for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 (commencing October 1, 2022).

The FY 2023 Homeland Security Appropriations bill proposes to fund $85.67 billion to invest in smart, effective border security, meet humanitarian needs of migrants and support federal efforts to keep the country safe. A provision in the bill would secure the nation's critical infrastructure with dramatically increased funding to prevent cyberattacks and root out cyber intrusions.

"The bottom line is that we should fully expect and prepare for Russia and individuals and entities associated with Russia to continue to engage in cyber warfare across the world, as they are already doing in Ukraine and have done in our country and elsewhere in the world and as we pursue our critical response through sanctions and other means," said Case.

"This is just as true in Hawai'i as anywhere else in our country. For although we may be physically located on the other side of the world and far from the actual war, cyberattacks do not care about physical locations."

"We should also not assume that the targets are just governments and businesses with key infrastructure roles. The intent of cyberwarfare is to disrupt economies and societies across a broad range and so nobody is immune."

The bill also supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Secret Service and more. The discretionary funding level is $85.67 billion, an increase of $2.7 billion over the 2022 enacted level.

The bill includes $101 million for the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, which includes the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPC) at the University of Hawai"i at Mānoa. The NDPC, a seven-member professional alliance, is the principal means through which FEMA identifies, develops, tests and delivers training to state and local emergency responders. The NDPC has trained over 2.5 million people throughout the United States and its territories.

Other programs and provisions requested and secured by Case include:

* $370 million for the Emergency Management Performance Grants, which support state and local emergency management agencies like the Hawai"i Emergency Management Agency.
* $370 million for assistance to firefighter grant programs, which are a major source of funding for county fire departments.
* $30 million for the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program.

The measure also:

* Includes Case's requested report language to support the Coast Guard in the Indo-Pacific and requires the Coast Guard to examine its assets in Oceania and the facilities in O"ahu.
* Directs FEMA to report on their strategies to respond to the unique challenges posed by disasters in Hawai"i and other non-contiguous areas.
* Includes language requiring U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to brief Congress on resources needed to shorten the wait times for family members of Filipino World War II veterans and more quickly process the permanent resident applications of those enrolled in the Filipino War Veteran Parole Program.

Case's Appropriations Committee is responsible for allocating some $1.6 trillion in funding to federal government agencies, departments and organizations on an annual basis through twelve separate bills.

Source