Rep. Thompson's Bill Would Make ACAS Permanent, Pulls From Parts of House-Passed DHS Authorization
House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., on Oct. 31, introduced legislation that would make permanent the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) program and chart an advisory committee review of whether the Known Shipper program should be changed or canceled, committee Democrats announced Nov. 2. “Specifically, my legislation would clarify air cargo security responsibilities at [the Transportation Security Administration], encourage further technological developments for screening air cargo, review existing air cargo programs, and require the Department of Homeland Security to make permanent the Air Cargo Advance Screening Program,” Thompson said Oct. 31, on the House floor.
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The bill includes much of the exact ACAS language that is in the DHS Authorization Act of 2017, which passed the House July 20 (see 1707210033). For example, Thompson’s Air Cargo Security Improvement Act of 2017 would require the Homeland Security secretary within 180 days of enactment to issue a final rule making ACAS permanent. Also similar to the July-passed legislation, Thompson’s bill would dictate that the ACAS program require air carriers and other involved individuals to submit information at the “earliest point practicable” before the loading of cargo on an aircraft bound for or transiting through the U.S. Yet another item identical to the DHS authorization bill that appears in Thompson’s legislation is a would-be requirement for DHS to establish a system for freight forwarders, shippers and air carriers to send shipment-level data for air cargo departing from any location inbound to the U.S.
H.R. 4176 also includes language from the DHS authorization bill that would require the TSA administrator, within 180 days of enactment, to develop and issue standards for the use of third-party explosives canine teams for primary air cargo screening. The logic behind including some of the same provisions as the authorization bill was that "it made sense to pull out some of the cargo provisions and give them a separate and related legislative vehicle, given that the threat is evolving and that it's not clear what the path forward will be in the Senate," a House Homeland Security spokesman said in an email. The authorization legislation is now being considered by the Senate Homeland Security Committee. That committee didn’t comment.
While not specifying a time table, H.R. 4176 would require the TSA Aviation Security Advisory Committee to report findings and recommendations stemming from the Known Shipper review to the TSA administrator. Senators introduced legislation in September that would task a public-private review and security assessment of the Known Shipper program, including whether it should be “modified or eliminated” (see 1709280023).
Thompson’s bill includes a provision omitted from the DHS Authorization Act requiring the U.S. comptroller-general within one year of enactment to review the DHS “analysis and intelligence pre-screening processes and procedures for the examination of air cargo” entering the U.S. The legislation would also require the comptroller-general to review DHS’s practices for sharing information with “relevant stakeholders” on preventing, mitigating and responding to “air cargo-related threats.” Also unlike the other bill, H.R. 4176 would require the TSA to create an “air cargo security office” consisting of no fewer than four full-time employee equivalents, “to carry out all policy and engagement with air cargo security stakeholders.”