Improved Interagency Coordination a Necessary Step to Improve Trade Processing, Kerlikowske Says
CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske plans to use his experience in bringing together disparate government interests during his time at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to coalesce the other government agencies toward improved import processing, he said in April 2 testimony before the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Homeland Security. There's already some progress toward that end and Kerlikowske has met with Food and Drug Administration executive Margaret Hamburg to begin a look at "where we could be more knowledgeable and perhaps more helpful," he said. He highlighted a South Texas port where the U.S. Agriculture Department trained and authorized some CBP agricultural inspectors to "act on behalf of USDA and make a decision to release cargo." The "same kind of template can be used with some of our other federal partners and I'm going to explore that very aggressively."
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The White House Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) budget includes legislative changes to CBP user fees that would provide $331.775 million to hire an additional 2,000 CBP officers, noted Kerlikowske in his written testimony (here). The FY15 proposed CBP officer increase would build off an additional allocation of 2,000 CBP officers to U.S. ports of entry, already authorized through the Fiscal Year 2014 omnibus appropriations package, and would help expedite the flow of trade across U.S. borders, said Kerlikowske.
The White House FY15 budget request would bring CBP to an unprecedented staff level of 25,775 officers, said Kerlikowske. Increased staffing at the ports of entry will be necessary in the future as the amount cargo grows due to the widening of the Panama Canal and the use of bigger vessels, he noted. The commissioner also stressed the need for improved morale at the agency. "I think it's absolutely no secret, in the surveys of employees, CBP and the Department of Homeland Security have not fared very well," he said. "Improvements of employee morale are absolutely critical."
The FY15 budget user fees include a $2.00 increase to the Immigration User Fee, increases to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 air and sea passenger user fees, and increases to fees at express consignment carrier facilities, said Kerlikowske. House members criticized increases to user fees across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a March 11 hearing that heard testimony from DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson (see 14031217). CBP collected $39.4 billion in revenue in FY13, after processing $2.38 trillion in trade and nearly 25 million cargo containers through U.S. ports, said Kerlikowske. The hearing focused comprehensively on the CBP budget within the White House request, including security functions that do not target trade facilitation.
The White House FY15 budget would also deliver CBP $11.7 million to begin replacing its fleet of “aging” Non-Intrusive Inspection equipment in order to increase CBP capacity to secure and facilitate commerce at U.S. ports of entry, said Kerlikowske. Moreover, the request would provide $8.3 million to CBP for new hand-held screening devices, an asset that would allow an estimated 5-minute reduction in inspection time and release of goods, said Kerlikowske in testimony. The CBP FY15 request constitutes nearly $13 billion dollars and almost 40 percent of DHS’s total budget request, said subcommittee Chairman John Carter, R-Texas (here).
“CBP will also continue to make progress on the efforts to implement the Single Window for trade processing via development of the International Trade Data System and the Automated Commercial Environment,” said Kerlikowske in testimony. “The agency is consistently meeting its targets in terms of implementation, and support from the private sector has never been stronger. We plan to continue to meet our commitments within the current funding level and through the use of carryover funds from prior years.”
The U.S. and Canadian launch of Phase II in the Cargo Pre-Inspection pilot at the Peace Bridge crossing between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York, will also help test the commercial impact of pre-inspection. “The Beyond the Border Action Plan, signed by President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012, articulates a shared vision in which the U.S. and Canada work together to address threats at the earliest point possible while facilitating the legitimate movement of people, goods and services across our shared border,” said Kerlikowske. Some New York lawmakers praised the program following its launch (see 14022515).