CBP Reports to Congress on ACE (Screening & Targeting, Etc.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment for the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 (January 1, 2008 - March 31, 2008). The report provides an update on ACE accomplishments, challenges, fiscal status, and upcoming program milestones.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
This is Part II of a multi-part series of summaries on this report, and highlights CBP's assessment of ACE Screening and Targeting (S&T) capabilities and upcoming related ACE milestones.
(ACE S&T capabilities are being integrated with the Automated Targeting System, and have been developed in close collaboration with the National Targeting Center to provide accelerated functional support for its operations.)
ACE Screening and Targeting
ACE Screening and Targeting accomplishments include the following (partial list):
Advanced Targeting. CBP deployed Advanced Targeting (S3) mission-critical enhancements for the first quarterly drop, which provided further enhancements to access hierarchy, weight-set enhancements, impact assessment stability and performance enhancements on February 20, 2008.
CBP completed the performance measurement analysis for S3 for the second quarter on March 31, 2008. The S3 drop was scheduled to be deployed on April 2, 2008.
(S3 combines the Screening Foundation (S1) and ATS targeting capabilities into a single platform.)
There are three key cargo-targeting components that provide mission critical functionality and enhancements for modernizing targeting: User Defined Rules (UDR), Impact Assessment, and the Unified Screening Response (USR). These components as a whole will allow CBP to conduct better targeting through S3.
Targeting Framework. On January 26, 2008, CBP successfully completed development and deployed mission-critical Targeting Framework (TF) first quarter (Increment 7.0) enhancements to the field. These enhancements include further extension of the TF Super Query, which allows users to query multiple data sources simultaneously across different modules within the Automated Targeting System (ATS-Land, ATS-Inbound, and ATS-Outbound) data sources.
This release also included a tailored user interface specific to the Terrorist Identity Datamart Environment (TIDE) and Visa Revocation unit within National Targeting Center (NTC)-Passenger, which expedites the vetting of subjects with the Terrorist Screening Center. CBP has also further enhanced the automated process for the TIDE NEXUS Cargo events, which allows for better coordination between the two operational units.
CBP completed the performance measurement analysis for TF for the second quarter on March 31, 2008. The quarterly drop (Increment 8.0) for TF was scheduled to be deployed on April 26, 2008.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/04/08 news, 08060415, for Part I of BP's summary on this ACE report, with information on cargo, ESAR, MMM, etc.)
CBP's ACE quarterly report (including Appendices A-F) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace/quarterly_reports/ace_status_report_to_congress_march_2008/ace_2ndqtr_08.ctt/ace_2ndqtr_08.pdf
Appendix G of quarterly report available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace/quarterly_reports/ace_status_report_to_congress_march_2008/ace_appendixg.ctt/ace_appendixg.pdf