How much research funding does the Department of Homeland Security receive?

DHS had about $461 million in R&D budget authority in fiscal year 2025.

DHS Budget History: Federal Funding 2002–2026

The Department of Homeland Security is the youngest agency on these pages, created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Its research and development (R&D) money flows mostly through the Science and Technology Directorate — which works on things like explosives detection, biological threat sensing, and cyber defense — plus dedicated offices for detecting nuclear and radiological material.

The budget's shape tells a clear story: a fast ramp as the department stood up in 2003, a peak in 2006 at about $1.5 billion in 2017 dollars, and then a long slide. By fiscal year 2025 the research budget was $461 million in current dollars — about $360 million in 2017 dollars, roughly three-quarters below the 2006 peak in real terms.

The 2026 figure, $498 million, is the estimate from the White House budget request — notably, one of only two agencies among the thirteen tracked here whose 2026 request came in above its 2025 level, the other being Veterans Affairs. Congress went further still: the enacted FY 2026 appropriation put the Science and Technology account at about $831 million. The budget-cycle section below has the detail.

The current budget cycle: FY 2026 enacted, FY 2027 requested

What Congress enacted for fiscal year 2026 and what the White House has requested for FY 2027, account by account. Budget authority in millions of dollars.

Account	FY 2026 enacted	FY 2027 request	Change
Science & Technology	$831M	$754M	-9.3%
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction	$0M	$0M	—
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure R&D	$0M	$44M	—

See the full appropriations tracker across every agency

Budget history

Homeland Security research peaked in 2006, three years after the department stood up, and has fallen by roughly three-quarters in real terms since.

The DHS research and development (R&D) budget, every fiscal year on record.

Millions of constant 2017 dollars — adjusted for inflationFY 2026: budget-request estimate

Source: AAAS Historical R&D Data · as of 2025-10-23

2003 — Department stands up. Homeland Security is created after the September 11 attacks and its research budget ramps quickly.
2006 — Real-terms peak. The Science and Technology Directorate buildout tops out near $1.5 billion in 2017 dollars.

See the numbers behind this chart

DHS research and development (R&D) budget by fiscal year. Dollar values in millions; source AAAS Historical R&D Data.
Fiscal year	Nominal dollars	Constant 2017 dollars	R&D share of GDP
2002	266	352	0.002%
2003	737	957	0.007%
2004	1,028	1,304	0.009%
2005	1,240	1,526	0.01%
2006	1,300	1,549	0.01%
2007	996	1,155	0.007%
2008	995	1,131	0.007%
2009	1,096	1,233	0.008%
2010	887	989	0.006%
2011	760	831	0.005%
2012	481	516	0.003%
2013	684	721	0.004%
2014	1,032	1,069	0.006%
2015	919	942	0.005%
2016	582	592	0.003%
2017	723	723	0.004%
2018	723	707	0.004%
2019	600	576	0.003%
2020	533	505	0.003%
2021	590	541	0.003%
2022	830	711	0.003%
2023	634	519	0.002%
2024	463	369	0.002%
2025	461	360	0.002%
2026est.	498	381	0.002%

Where the money goes

The Science and Technology Directorate is the department's research arm, joined later by nuclear-detection offices.

The major DHS budget lines tracked by AAAS. These are appropriations accounts — they overlap the budget-history series but are not an exact decomposition of it.

Millions of constant 2017 dollars — adjusted for inflationFY 2026: budget-request estimateScience and Technology DirectorateDomestic Nuclear Detection OfficeCountering Weapons of Mass Destruction R&D