According to the DHS Service Budget Fact Sheet, the Department is requesting 47 million dollars in funding to support the multi-year program that will improve how USCIS receives, processes, and exchanges information. In the fact sheet, the US lists several items as accomplishements. Within the 2005 fiscal year alone, USCIS reduced the benefit application backlog from 3.8 million cases to less than 1.0 million. In the DHS summary of USCIS accomplishments, the agency noted that it performed over 35 million background/security checks on all benefit applicants. In addition, USCIS made it easier for applicants to understand and file petitions by means of developing an online informational fact sheet in Spanish, and developed the Benefit Fraud Assessment (BFA) Program to determine the fraud rate among immigration benefit applications.

Along with transforming its business processes, USCIS noted that it will reform its fee structure to ensure the recovery of operational costs in line with Federal fee guidelines. The Department is preparing to take on the President’s Temporary Worker Program and a mandatory employment verification system, and plans to implement a long-term fee reform rulemaking process in 2008.

The Department is also requesting 134.99 million dollars for the purposes of operating the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program (SAVE), which verifies immigration status in order to ensure only entitled non-citizens receive public benefits. The funding will also be allocated towards expanding the current Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV) program, which makes it easier for employers to confirm the eligibility of employees, improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, and protects jobs for authorized works.