Congress in its proposed final defense policy bill is directing the Department of Homeland Security to provide it with a plan for how it will achieve 100 percent scanning of all commercial and passenger vehicles and freight rail traffic entering the U.S. at land ports of entry and rail-border crossings using large scale inspection technology.
The directive is included in the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, which is being considered by the House this week and possibly the Senate. President Donald Trump will still have to sign the bill into law.
The bill says that the plan is due within 180 days of the bill being signed into law and must include an inventory of all large-scale non-intrusive inspection (NII) systems in use at each port of entry, the scanning method of each technology, whether the systems are being used in pre-primary, primary or secondary inspection areas, the percentage of commercial and passenger vehicles and freight rail traffic scanned, seizure data “directly attributed” to scanned vehicles and rail traffic, and the number of personnel required to operate each system.
The provision in the defense bill for the scanning plan is based on a bipartisan bill approved by the House earlier this year introduced by Rep. Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.). The screening of all cargo and vehicles entering the U.S. has been a goal in the post 9/11 era, but technology limitations combined with limited real estate at border entry points has prevented 100 percent scanning from being implemented.
However, improvements in technology and substantial congressional appropriations amounting to more than $600 million for large scale NII equipment have put Customs and Border Protection on a path in the coming few years to substantially increase the number of vehicles and the amount of cargo entering the U.S. to be scanned.
In July, CBP awarded Leidos [LDOS], OSI Systems [OSIS] and Smiths Detection potential five-year contracts to be able to compete for up to $379 million in high-energy NII systems for scanning freight traffic at rail crossing points along the northern and southern U.S. borders.
The agency is also hosting a competition to acquire Multi-Energy Portal (MEP) NII systems that will allow vehicles to be safely driven through the portal so that the driver and anyone else in the cab of a truck is not exposed to harmful radiation and the system switches to a higher-energy level to scan the cargo area for contraband and illicit items. CBP is evaluating bids for the MEP systems, which allow for increases in throughput of scanned vehicles.
As of last March, CBP was scanning about 15 percent of commercial vehicles and 1 percent of passenger vehicles entering the U.S. at land ports of entry. In the next few years, the agency expects to increase those numbers to 72 percent and 40 percent respectively as it deploys additional NII systems.
The NII scanning plan called for in the defense bill also calls for estimated costs of implementing the 100 percent scanning mandate, increases in average wait times for vehicles and freight traffic entering the U.S., incremental benchmarks toward achieving the scanning goal, impacts on border security operations at rail crossings and land ports of entry, and related changes in the number of CBP officers.
Congress also wants CBP to provide a report within one year of submitting the scanning plan and biennial reports thereafter for six years updating progress toward 100 percent scanning.