Statement · 01
Congress created two funds to reimburse states for border security and wrote them retroactive to January 2021 — which reaches Operation Lone Star from its first day. When this statement was published in September 2026, the public record showed about $1.6 million awarded to two Texas counties and nothing to the State of Texas. It now shows a $7.5 billion FEMA award to the Texas Office of the Governor, signed September 18, 2026. This page is every number in that statement, where it comes from, and what has changed since.
Fourteen months ago, Congress created two funds to pay states back for border security: $10 billion at Homeland Security, and up to $3.5 billion more at the Justice Department. Both retroactive to January 20, 2021 — which covers Operation Lone Star from day one.
Texas put at least $12.85 billion into that fight across three state budgets.
Update, October 2026: on September 18, FEMA obligated $7.5 billion from the $10 billion fund to the Texas Office of the Governor, the only award recorded under that fund. Under the Justice Department fund, two Texas counties have been awarded about $1.6 million and the State nothing.
What the public still cannot see, as far as I could find on October 10, 2026: who else applied, the applications themselves, and how the agency set $7.5 billion. That is what the records requests ask.
Nobody in Austin or Washington has shown Texans where the rest is. So I asked both, and the records requests are filed.
Pay Texas what it is owed. Every dollar Congress promised. And Texas shows the receipts — the ones it already owes itself under its own law.
That is not left or right. That is the check and the receipt.
| Claim | Basis | Source | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10 billion at Homeland Security, available until Sept. 30, 2034 | P.L. 119-21 §90005(b)(3), noted as 8 U.S.C. 1716, establishing the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund: “there is appropriated… to the Department of Homeland Security for the State Border Security Reinforcement Fund… $10,000,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2034.” | govinfo — PLAW-119publ21, enacted text | VP |
| Up to $3.5 billion at Justice, available until Sept. 30, 2028 | P.L. 119-21 §100055(c), noted as 34 U.S.C. 61101, the BIDEN Reimbursement Fund: “there is appropriated to the Attorney General… not to exceed $3,500,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2028.” This is a ceiling, not a fixed sum, which is why the statement says “up to.” | govinfo — PLAW-119publ21, enacted text | VP |
| Retroactive to January 20, 2021 | §90005(b)(4): grants may be made “for expenditures made for completed, ongoing, or new activities… that occurred on or after January 20, 2021.” §100055(d) uses the same date and adds: “Amounts made available under this section shall be distributed to more than 1 State.” | govinfo — PLAW-119publ21, enacted text | VP |
Two amounts I checked and deliberately did not count. P.L. 119-98 §203 appropriates another $2,500,000,000, and P.L. 119-21 §90007 appropriates another $10,000,000,000 — but both go “to the Secretary of Homeland Security,” not to a state grant fund. §203's money is for purposes in its own title or in P.L. 119-21 §100051(3) and (7); reimbursing state and local participation is one of five listed purposes there, at the Department's discretion. Adding either to a “paid back to states” total would inflate it. An earlier draft of this statement said $16 billion by summing §203 in. Reading the enacted text is what caught it.
| Claim | Basis | Source | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| At least $12.85 billion across three state budgets | Legislative appropriations for border security, summed across the three Operation Lone Star bienniums: $2,926.3M for 2022–23 (the 87th Legislature's three Operation Lone Star bills: SB 1 $1,013.4M + HB 2 $110.3M + HB 9, 2nd Called Session, $1,802.6M) + $6,571.7M (2024–25, the 13 agencies listed in Art. IX §7.10(a)) + $3,351.7M (2026–27, same section) = $12,849.7M. The 2022–23 figure is the three bills, not a 13-agency §7.10 total; the LBB's own 13-agency figure for 2022–23 is $4,743.2M, including $347.3M added by SB 30 in 2023, which would put the three-budget sum at about $14.7 billion. This page keeps the lower, bill-by-bill figure and says so; on either basis, “at least $12.85 billion” holds. | LBB Fiscal Size-Up 2024-25 p. 13; Fiscal Size-Up 2026-27 pp. 12 and 344; LBB staff, Border Security Cross Article, 2026-27 (December 2024), p. 2, produced September 16, 2026 under the Public Information Act. 2024-25 (PDF) · 2026-27 (PDF) | VP |
| These are appropriations, not expenditures | No audited or LBB-published figure was found for what Texas actually spent. The LBB publishes no cumulative Operation Lone Star total: each Fiscal Size-Up reports its own biennium's appropriations (the 2024-25 edition also restates the 2022-23 total), and no LBB publication found in the September 5 search and no document in the September 16 production prints a sum across bienniums, of appropriations or of spending, which is why circulating totals range from $11 billion to $18 billion depending on who assembled them and what they included. Under the Public Information Act, on September 16, 2026 the LBB produced the agencies' own expenditure reports. Added up, they come to about $11.36 billion for September 2021 through February 2026 (a computed total from 175 report files, with two duplicate files dropped, one cumulative report split into its quarters, and one Parks and Wildlife period still ambiguous); the agency rows in the LBB's internal trackers add to about $11.49 billion (the trackers' own total lines print about $10.73 billion, because the 2022-23 total skips the June–August 2023 quarter); and both count twice the money the Governor's office passes to other agencies, so no unduplicated total exists in the produced records. Still unpublished; no audit of it was found. | Negative finding, searched 2026-09-05; LBB production of 2026-09-16 (175 agency reports, three LBB trackers) | VP |
| Claim | Basis | Source | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| About $1.6 million to two Texas counties; nothing to the State of Texas under this fund | Assistance Listing 16.076 (BIDEN Reimbursement Fund), queried September 5, 2026 and again October 10, 2026, unchanged: Kendall County $915,961 and Kaufman County $711,415 — $1,627,376 combined. No award to the State of Texas appears. Total obligations recorded government-wide under that listing were about $57 million against a fund of up to $3.5 billion. | USAspending.gov, Assistance Listing 16.076 | VP |
| The $10 billion fund has made one award: $7.5 billion to Texas | Assistance Listing 97.159 (State Border Security Reinforcement Fund), re-queried October 10, 2026: FAIN EMW-2026-SB-05003, $7,500,000,000 to the Texas Office of the Governor, signed September 18, 2026, record last modified September 29, 2026. It is the only award recorded. (Queried September 5, 2026: none.) The Governor's office announced the approval the same day and said the State applied in June (press release, September 18, 2026). | USAspending.gov, Assistance Listing 97.159 | VP |
| Applications closed September 17, 2026 | DHS/FEMA Notice of Funding Opportunity DHS-26-GPD-159-00-99, posted June 3, 2026 — roughly eleven months after the statute directed the Department to begin accepting applications. Estimated program total $9,985,436,000; 50 expected awards. | DHS-26-GPD-159-00-99, Assistance Listing 97.159 | VP |
One honest limit on that number. USAspending lags obligation by weeks. “The public record shows” is the accurate claim and it is the one the statement makes — not “Texas has received only $1.6 million.” If awards have been made and not yet posted, this page will say so when they post. That is also part of why the records requests below were filed: the database is not the only place to look. Update, October 10, 2026: the $7.5 billion Texas award posted; see the table above.
| Claim | Basis | Source | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas law requires semi-annual expenditure reports to the Legislative Budget Board; in 2022–23 the reports were also quarterly | General Appropriations Act Article IX §7.10: all three acts set the same semi-annual reports, as of February 28 and August 31, due March 31 and September 30 (2022-23 act §7.10(a) and (c), p. IX-39; 2024-25 and 2026-27 acts §7.10(c)). For 2022–23, HB 9 (87th Legislature, 2nd Called Session) §8(c) required six of the agencies to report quarterly and the LBB's own reporting instructions (Fall 2021) made every agency file quarterly; semi-annual filing began with the September 2023–February 2024 period. The 2024-25 and 2026-27 acts, at §7.10(d), require each agency to itemize its reports into border and non-border regions and to “list in its reports the specific counties that the agency considers to be within the border region,” and provide that “Reports may include activities statewide that support the definition in Subsection (b).” The 2022-23 act has no subsection (d). | General Appropriations Act, Art. IX §7.10 (2022-23, 2024-25, 2026-27); HB 9, 87th Leg., 2nd C.S., §8; LBB Border Security Reporting Instructions (Fall 2021, Spring 2024, Spring 2026), produced September 16, 2026 | VP |
| No such report has been made public | No §7.10(c)(1) expenditure report was located on lbb.texas.gov or on any reporting agency's site. Stated as a negative finding, not as proof none exists — which is precisely what the records request below asks the LBB to resolve in writing. Sharpened September 16, 2026, when the LBB produced 175 quarterly and semi-annual expenditure report files under the Public Information Act: agencies file the reports to the LBB by email as Excel workbooks and the LBB keeps them; none was found posted on lbb.texas.gov or any reporting agency's site in the September 5 search. The production itself was incomplete: nine agency-periods missing or partial, and the workbooks printed to PDF. | Negative finding, searched 2026-09-05; LBB production of 2026-09-16 | VP |
| The State Auditor's last dedicated border-security report was 2009 | SAO Report 09-022, March 2009. No later report dedicated to border security funding was located. Search-limited: this is the most recent one found, not a proof that none was issued. | Texas State Auditor's Office, Report 09-022 | UNV |
Six records requests: four on September 5, 2026 — the same day this position was taken — and two more on October 12, 2026, after the Governor’s office asked the Attorney General for a ruling on withholding. A position without a filing behind it is a press release.
| Agency | What it asks for | Filed |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Legislative Budget Board | Every Art. IX §7.10(c)(1) semi-annual expenditure report received from any agency, FY2022 through FY2026; the reporting template; and records showing which agencies filed and which did not. | Texas Public Information Act. Answered September 16, 2026: 427 files, no charge; items 1–5 answered in part, item 6 answered in writing with no records and an explanation the records bear out (see below). Follow-up sent October 11, 2026 for nine missing or partial agency reports and the native spreadsheets. |
| Office of the Governor | Texas's applications to both federal funds; correspondence with DHS, FEMA, DOJ or Congress about reimbursement; internal compilations of reimbursable costs; and any award or denial received. | Texas Public Information Act, PIR 505-26. On October 12, 2026 the Office of the Governor asked the Attorney General for a ruling on withholding the records (Gov’t Code §552.301); I replied the same day asking for release of anything not sent to the Attorney General. |
| U.S. Department of Justice (Office of Justice Programs) | Every applicant under the BIDEN Reimbursement Fund; any Texas application; the Kendall and Kaufman award files; and the allocation methodology, including how the Department reads the requirement that funds go to “more than 1 State.” | FOIA 26-FOIA-00352. Status inquiry sent October 10, 2026. |
| DHS / FEMA | Every application received under DHS-26-GPD-159-00-99; any Texas application; the allocation methodology; and any correspondence referencing a proposed allocation to Texas. | FOIA 2026-FEFO-01300 (confirmation ID 3154786). Expedited processing granted September 11. On October 9 FEMA denied a fee waiver and estimated at least $1,064; on October 10 I declined to pay and narrowed the first phase. |
| Texas Division of Emergency Management | The application Texas submitted for the $7.5 billion award, the award package, the final cost summary, and any FEMA determinations on it. | Texas Public Information Act, October 12, 2026. |
| Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts | Records showing receipt and allocation of the $7.5 billion award (FAIN EMW-2026-SB-05003) in the state’s accounts. | Texas Public Information Act, October 12, 2026; acknowledged the same day. |
Neither is consequential on its own. Both are the kind of thing that makes “show the receipts” concrete rather than rhetorical, and both are in the Legislative Budget Board's flagship publication.
Fiscal Size-Up 2024-25, p. 13“Funding includes $6.571.7 million in All Funds for border security efforts at 13 state agencies” — a period where a comma belongs.
Fiscal Size-Up 2026-27, p. 344The Texas Military Department “receives $1,765.5 million” and, in the next paragraph, “TMD receives $1,756.5 million for Operation Lone Star (OLS) and to support other border security activities.” Not a transposition, as this page first said. The LBB explained on September 16, 2026: “The difference between these amounts is a separate appropriation made to the Texas Military Department for Operation Border Star.” The records agree to the dollar: TMD's own report lists Operation Lone Star $1,756,544,752 plus Border Star $8,922,000 = $1,765,466,752, and the Act's TMD bill pattern carries an Interagency Contracts line of $4,461,000 a year. The defect that remains is a label: the Size-Up calls the full $1,765.5 million “General Revenue Funds” for border security on p. 12 and “as part of Operation Lone Star” on pp. 369 and 370, and the Act never names Border Star. The higher figure is the one that makes the 13-agency total foot.
A book that counts the same $8.9 million as part of Operation Lone Star on one page and leaves it unexplained on another is the book the public is asked to accept as the accounting. Correction, October 10, 2026: this page called the pair a transposition; it is not.
Four agencies show identical border security appropriations in both the 2024-25 and 2026-27 bienniums: the Office of Court Administration at $44.8 million, Parks and Wildlife at $33.6 million, the Department of Criminal Justice at $25.9 million, and State Health Services at $16.4 million (four smaller lines, for TABC, Jail Standards, TCOLE and Soil and Water, are also identical). The LBB's records, produced September 16, 2026, show the four lines carried forward unchanged: identical to the dollar ($44,848,069; $33,591,477; $25,884,944; $16,352,928), left unmarked in the January 2025 bill mark-up, where only the Attorney General, DPS, DMV and total lines were edited, and with no recalculation or working paper produced for 2026-27 (“we only possess general documents that show these numbers as provided/appropriated by the legislature”). Parks and Wildlife's own 2026-27 rider adds to $32.4 million or $34.4 million, not $33.6 million. Carried forward; no recalculation was produced. Whether that is right is a question for the agencies and the LBB; I have asked the LBB.
The one line I will defend anywhere. Congress appropriated $13.5 billion to reimburse states for border security and wrote it retroactive to January 2021. Texas appropriated at least $12.85 billion over three budgets. The public record showed about $1.6 million awarded to two Texas counties and nothing to the State until an award signed September 18, 2026 obligated $7.5 billion to the Governor's office; the application behind it and the agency's basis for that amount remain unpublished as far as I can find. The expenditure reports Texas's own law requires are not posted anywhere I could find; I obtained them under the Public Information Act. Pay Texas what it is owed — and show the receipts.
This is not a new position. It is P-04 and P-05 applied to a specific pile of money: public dollars carry an identifier and an audit trail, and before we fund anything new we close what we already know about.