Priorities Shift to Solidifying Gains, Fixing Bugs After Completion of ACE 'Core,' Say Officials
As progress continues on ACE and the International Trade Data System, the conversation is shifting to "what we're going to be able to see stemming from this new major IT capability," said Christa Brzozowski, Department of Homeland Security deputy assistant secretary, Trade Policy, Foreign Investment and Transport Security. The government will be looking for ways to "institutionalize" the gains made and "embed these principles and policies at the national level," she said at the April 27 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC).
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Going forward, Brzozowski hopes to see "deliverables" coming from the North American Leaders Summit and other types of agreements with foreign partners, she said. DHS knows "this type of change can have a disruptive impact" for all involved and groups like COAC will continue to be of great importance to make sure the government isn't "using this great new IT capability to just further pave cowpaths that perhaps aren't as efficient as they could be," she said.
After CBP and its partner agencies complete deployment of the core ACE capabilities set for completion by the end of the year, “our work moves into the operations and maintenance part of the lifecycle,” said Deborah Augustin, executive director of CBP’s ACE Business Office, one week earlier. The ACE budget will be adjusted “commensurate to that,” she said, speaking at the annual conference of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America on April 20. Given the “finite set of resources,” any further enhancements to ACE will be “prioritized within what we need to do” to fix any issues that arise, said Augustin.