
DHS is one of three departments that would see an increase in funding, which would be put toward building a wall along the southern border and increasing the number of agents throughout the immigration enforcement system, among other things. Trump’s budget proposal would make substantial changes to some of these departments. A smaller bump occurred in 2006 as part of FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

(The number you’re seeing before that date is the funding allocated to all the then-independent agencies that are now part of DHS, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement.) From 2001 to 2002, the funding for these programs - which primarily focus on counterterrorism and immigration - nearly doubled. The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, which focus on diplomacy and law enforcement, have grown almost continuously for the past 40 years.Ī major disruption came after the 2001 terrorist attacks, after which the Department of Homeland Security was founded. Commerce would see a steeper 16 percent decrease, cutting from many programs that aim to help communities struggling with the effects of climate change or manufacturing automation. With Trump’s 2018 proposal, Treasury would see a modest 4 percent cut, largely aimed at the IRS’s funding. Financial agencies outside these departments, such as the FDIC, which insures Americans’ bank deposits, also saw spending spikes during that period (though that money is funded by insurance premiums, not Congress). The departments’ funding similarly responds to nationwide financial crises after the 2008 housing bubble burst, the Commerce Department got increased funding to respond. The city government at the time was facing bankruptcy. Treasury saw a large bump in spending in the mid 1970s because the department loaned more than $1.3 billion (nearly $6 billion in today’s dollars) to New York City. Their funding levels are largely driven by the state of the economy and government budgets. The Treasury Department and Commerce Department are concerned with the government’s finances and the country’s economic growth, respectively. Much of this money would be taken out of research and climate-change-related programs. With Trump’s 2018 proposal, all of these departments are looking at cuts of between 12 and 21 percent. Note that though the 2009 budget was set during the Bush administration, the stimulus itself was negotiated and passed by President Obama. More recently, as part of the stimulus following the 2008 financial crisis, many of these departments, most notably Transportation, received large budget increases. A few years later, in the early 1980s, the “farm crisis” - a period of falling crop prices and lower incomes for farmers - led to large payouts from the Agriculture Department. In the late 1970s, increased oil production in response to the energy crisis caused a spike in the Energy Department’s budget. Much of the other fluctuation in these budgets has been driven by political and financial turmoil. His promise to shrink the size of the government included significant reductions in federal housing funds.

These departments, especially HUD, lost significant funding as Reagan took office. Six maps that show the anatomy of America’s vast infrastructure] The Agriculture Department, Interior Department, Energy Department, Transportation Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development control much of the nation’s vast infrastructure.
