DHS Budget Coffers Remain Full as Contract Spending Triples
▶ Watch the video (1:40)The Department of Homeland Security has obligated less than half of the $191 billion it received from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, even as its contract obligations more than tripled in fiscal 2026 to $74 billion.
Through Aug. 31, DHS had obligated $78 billion of the law’s money, according to Treasury account data. That leaves $113 billion not yet committed. Most of it is available through September 2029.
For contractors, that’s the story. The windfall is still being spent, and most of it is moving through a handful of big vehicles.
The $191 Billion Deposit
DHS’s budget grew from $78 billion in fiscal 2022 to $97 billion in fiscal 2024, according to OMB’s Public Budget Database. Then the law landed on July 4, 2025, in the last quarter of fiscal 2025.
DHS’s fiscal 2025 budget authority hit $309 billion, 3.2 times fiscal 2024. About $191 billion of that came from the law. The rest was regular funding and disaster aid.
That was a one-time deposit, not a new baseline. OMB’s April estimate for fiscal 2026 was about $85 billion, but it came before Congress passed the full-year spending act and, in June, the $69.5 billion Secure America Act, mostly for ICE and CBP. The fiscal 2027 request is $89 billion, net of fees.
The law spells out where the money goes:
| One Big Beautiful Bill Act, DHS lines | $ billions |
|---|---|
| Border wall | 46.6 |
| ICE detention | 45.0 |
| ICE hiring and operations | 29.9 |
| Two border funds for states and DHS ($10 billion each) | 20.0 |
| CBP hiring, bonuses, vehicles and facilities | 12.0 |
| Coast Guard icebreakers | 8.6 |
| CBP technology | 6.2 |
| Coast Guard offshore patrol cutters | 4.3 |
| Everything else (rest of the Coast Guard, FEMA, Secret Service, training) | 18.5 |
| Total | 191.0 |
Source: P.L. 119-21, as traced on HitchAI’s OBBBA page.
Slow Burn, Then a Bonfire
Before the law, DHS put about $23 billion a year on contract, on average, in fiscal 2022 through 2024.
The first three quarters of fiscal 2025 looked normal, even a little light: $4.4 billion, $4.2 billion and $3.9 billion. Then the law passed. Fiscal 2025’s fourth quarter came in at $16.0 billion. The fourth quarter is always the year’s biggest, but in fiscal 2022 through 2024 it averaged $9.7 billion.
July 4, 2025
Obligations on contracts DHS awarded, by fiscal quarter. Source: DHS on HitchAI (USAspending.gov), as of Oct. 24, 2026.
Fiscal 2026 never cooled off. Every quarter topped $10 billion, and the year closed at $74 billion, 3.2 times the fiscal 2022–24 average. CBP accounted for $39 billion, the Coast Guard $14 billion and ICE $9 billion.
One caveat: contract awards don’t record which law paid for them. These are all DHS contract dollars, not just bill money.
Wall Money, One Big Vehicle
The law’s $46.6 billion for the wall flowed fast, and through one door.
CBP awarded its Southwest Border Construction IDIQ to 11 companies. Orders began in November 2025, and in 11 months they totaled $26.1 billion.
Fisher Sand & Gravel took $12.7 billion of it, nearly as much as the other ten holders combined. Three holders haven’t won an order yet.
Obligations on task orders, not contract ceilings. Each name links to that holder’s contract on HitchAI. Source: USAspending.gov via HitchAI, as of Oct. 28, 2026.
More is queued up. DHS forecasts list four new Border Patrol stations, in Indio, Calif., and Casa Grande, Sonoita and Three Points, Ariz. Each is forecast at over $100 million and slated as a task order off an existing IDIQ. If you aren’t on the vehicle, your way in is as a sub.
Icebreakers on a Letter
The Coast Guard got $8.6 billion for icebreakers. It moved without full and open competition.
It signed three letter contracts for Arctic Security Cutters, worth $6.8 billion, none of them competed:
- Davie Defense: five ships, $3.5 billion
- Bollinger Shipyards: four ships, $2.1 billion
- Rauma: two ships, $1.1 billion
The light icebreaker did go out for bids, as a small-business set-aside. Proposals were due Oct. 23.
IT and Services Ride the Wave
DHS spent $7.9 billion on IT in fiscal 2026, up 39% from its fiscal 2022–24 average of $5.7 billion. Professional services rose 26%, to $5.5 billion from $4.4 billion. Those figures cover all vendors.
How DHS bought matters as much as what it bought. Orders on IDIQ contracts jumped 4.4 times, to $45.5 billion from $10.3 billion. That’s 62% of everything DHS put on contract in fiscal 2026.
Small Business: More Dollars, Smaller Slice
| Fiscal year | DHS contract dollars to small businesses |
|---|---|
| 2022 | $8.7B |
| 2023 | $9.6B |
| 2024 | $9.4B |
| 2025 | $9.5B |
| 2026 | $14.8B |
Fiscal 2026 was up 60% from the fiscal 2022–24 average and the highest in data going back to fiscal 2015.
The share went the other way. Small businesses won 40% of DHS contract dollars in fiscal 2022–24 and 20% in fiscal 2026. The wall and ship contracts went to large companies and grew faster than everything else.
Fiscal 2027: Disasters Up, Grants Down
| Gross discretionary | FY2026 enacted | FY2027 request | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disaster Relief Fund | $26.4B | $28.4B | +7.6% |
| Coast Guard | $13.2B | $14.1B | +7.5% |
| FEMA grants and training, outside disasters | $3.8B | $2.6B | −32% |
Source: Congressional Research Service, R48979.
The $28.4 billion request is the largest ever made for the Disaster Relief Fund, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The House Appropriations Committee reported its DHS bill, H.R. 9310, in June at about the requested level. The Senate Appropriations Committee hasn’t marked up its version as of Oct. 31, per CRS. A stopgap funds DHS through Dec. 11.
What’s Ahead
HitchAI is tracking 1,574 open DHS opportunities as of Nov. 1: about 1,000 notices on SAM.gov and 562 more from DHS’s acquisition forecast. Among the largest:
- ICE ORBIT. A $2 billion multiple-award IDIQ for ICE’s enterprise IT, replacing the eight-holder SWIFT vehicle, whose ordering runs through September 2027. ICE held the industry day Oct. 29; no solicitation has posted. HitchAI’s ORBIT analysis maps all 30 SWIFT task orders moving to it: who holds each, who subs and when it runs out.
- Coast Guard Regional Multiple Award Construction Contract (RMACC III). Regional construction contracts with $4 billion in combined capacity, each region set aside for small business, and usable across DHS. Proposals are in; awards are pending.
- Four Border Patrol stations. CBP forecasts, each over $100 million, as task orders off an existing IDIQ (linked above).
- Maritime Approaches Surveillance Systems (MAST). A CBP forecast over $100 million, with the solicitation expected in December.
- ICE Enterprise Support Services. A separate ICE IT forecast, over $100 million, set aside for small business. The solicitation was expected in mid-October and hasn’t posted.
With $113 billion of the law’s money not yet committed, and IDIQs carrying most of DHS’s buying, the near-term question for most companies is whose vehicle they’re on.
Definitions: Budget figures are budget authority, net of fees. Contract figures are obligations on contracts DHS awarded, all vendors, as of Oct. 24, 2026, unless noted. Small business follows the contracting officer’s size determination. Forecast values are DHS’s stated minimums. The Secure America Act is P.L. 119-98; the stopgap is P.L. 119-103.
Analysis written using Claude Opus 5.5 and the HitchAI MCP.