Through appropriations legislation, Congress provides not only budget authority for federal agencies and departments to operate, but also legally binding direction on how that budget authority can (or cannot) be used. These directions may appear in three places in an appropriations act: 1. in the language of individua…

Critical infrastructure refers to the machinery, facilities, and information systems that enable critical functions of governance, public health, and the economy. Risks to infrastructure include terrorism, organized crime, cyberattacks, and hostile action by foreign governments, as well as natural hazards, accidents,…

FY2026 marks the 23rd annual appropriations cycle with a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations measure. In six of the first seven years of its existence, the annual appropriations measure for DHS was enacted within a month of the beginning of the fiscal year it covered. Since FY2010, however, no annual…

Introduction The Coast Guard’s Waterways Commerce Cutter (WCC) program envisages procuring 30 replacements for the Coast Guard’s 35 aging river buoy tenders (WLRs), inland construction tenders (WLICs), and inland buoy tenders (WLIs). Construction of the first two WCCs began in FY2025, and the Coast Guard’s FY2026 budg…