While there is no love from Democrats for the generous spending by the former Trump administration for a new border wall along portions of the southern U.S. border with Mexico, Democrats are proposing increased funding in fiscal year 2022 for border security technologies at and between ports of entry.
Senate Democrats this month introduced their proposed FY ’22 homeland security appropriations bill, recommending that $1.9 billion in prior year funding for the border wall be rescinded and $124 million diverted to border security technologies between ports of entry, $70 million more than requested, and $68 million go toward non-intrusive inspection (NII) technologies for scanning vehicles and cargo at ports of entry, $36 million above the request.
The bill proposed by Senate Democrats, which has yet to be acted on by the full appropriations committee, would spend the border security technology funds on relocatable surveillance capabilities, team awareness kits, small unmanned aerial systems, and other capabilities.
The House already approved its proposed FY ’22 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, adding $50 million to the request for border security technology and $50 million more to the NII systems request. In the House bill, the border security technology would go toward autonomous surveillance, cross border tunnel threats, mobile surveillance, aerostats, geospatial capabilities, mesh networks, and search and rescue capabilities.
The House bill also recommends $45 million for innovative technology, which could include geospatial search and rescue, remote sensing, mesh networking, satellite communications, and aerostat technology.
Congress in the past few years has appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars for NII systems and in the last 15 months has awarded three separate multi-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts for the scanning of rail cars, trucks and their cargo containers, and personally owned vehicles.
In July 2020, Customs and Border Protection selected Leidos [LDOS], OSI Systems’ [OSIS] Rapiscan Systems division, and Smiths Detection to compete to provide railcar NII systems under a potential $379 million contract. That award was followed up this year by two more sizeable NII contracts, one worth $480 million to Leidos, Rapiscan and Smiths Detection for multi-energy portals to scan the cab of a truck and the container it is hauling, and a potential $390 million award to Astrophysics, Leidos and Rapiscan for low-energy portals to scan vehicles with their occupants still inside.
The likelihood that Congress appropriates anywhere between $68 million and $82 million in FY ’22 for additional NII technologies to be deployed at land and sea ports of entry means these companies all could benefit.
Congress has mandated a goal of 100 percent scanning of all cargo and vehicles entering the U.S. and with the new contracts for the MEP and LEP systems, CBP is hoping within the next few years to scan about 70 percent of all cargo and 40 percent of all passenger vehicles respectively entering the U.S. The additional NII funding being proposed by congressional appropriators should help CBP move the needle closer to achieving the 100 percent mandate.