House Passes Bill Requiring CBP to Develop Plan for 100% Screening of Vehicles
The House of Representatives passed a bill that would require CBP to develop a plan “to increase CBP’s non-intrusive-inspection scanning rates to 100% of commercial and passenger vehicles at all land ports of entry that includes incremental timeframes and estimated costs by port.” The bill, called the Securing America's Ports Act, passed on a voice vote Feb. 10. It does not have a Senate companion bill, and the Senate has been passing next to no legislation in this session, instead concentrating its energy on appointing judges.
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Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M., introduced the bill with Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas. Torres Small said in a press release that even though Congress appropriated $570 million for non-intrusive inspection systems in the previous fiscal year, just 15% of commercial traffic and 2% of passenger vehicles are scanned. “Even for land ports of entry with advanced scanning technology, NII scanning rates vary significantly by land port of entry,” the release said. Once the department submitted its initial plan to deploy the technology, it would need to provide annual status reports to Congress on its progress toward 100% non-intrusive screening.