A Senate subcommittee recently approved a request from the United States Department of Homeland Security for nearly a quarter-of-a-billion dollars to be used on a state-of-the-art biometric system. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on DHS green-lighted more than $47 billion to go towards the agency as part of a request made for funding in fiscal year 2015.

According to a statement by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the chairwoman of the committee on appropriations, a significant chunk of that sum will go towards increasing the efforts of DHS to document persons coming in and out of the US by using high-tech biometric technology that captures unique features from individuals and then scours massive databases for more information pertaining to those persons.

If all goes as planned, upgrades to DHS’s biometric system will allow not only for the vast collection of this information, but will ensure that the details are easily shared among federal agencies of various sorts.

“The bill provides $249 million for the Office of Biometric Identity Management, $2 million below the request and$22 million above fiscal year 2014,” the statement reads in part. “This funding helps assure national security, public safety and the integrity of our immigration laws.”

“By sharing real-time biometric and identity data between the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, and State we can monitor who legally enters and exits the country,” the statement continues.