[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2278 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2278
To establish Image Adjudicator and Supervisory Image Adjudicator
positions in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field
Operations.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 12, 2023
Mr. Lankford (for himself and Mr. Kelly) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish Image Adjudicator and Supervisory Image Adjudicator
positions in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field
Operations.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Border Enforcement, Security, and
Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. NEW OFFICE OF FIELD OPERATIONS POSITIONS AUTHORIZED.
Section 411(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C.
211(g)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(6) Image adjudicator positions.--
``(A) Image adjudicator.--There shall be in the
Office of Field Operations, the position of Image
Adjudicator, who shall be appointed in accordance with
the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to
appointments in the competitive service) and chapters
51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay)
of title 5, United States Code. Each Image Adjudicator
shall--
``(i) review non-intrusive inspection
images of conveyances and containers entering
or exiting the United States through a land,
sea, or air port of entry or rail crossing;
``(ii) assess whether conveyances and
containers contain contraband, illicit drugs,
terrorist weapons, or persons who are seeking
to unlawfully enter or exit the United States;
``(iii) recommend entry for all conveyances
and containers that do not contain contraband,
illicit drugs, terrorist weapons, or persons
seeking to unlawfully enter the United States
to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Officer responsible for inspecting such cargo
or conveyance;
``(iv) refer any conveyances and containers
that the Image Adjudicator reasonably believes
contains contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist
weapons, or persons seeking to unlawfully enter
or exit the United States to the U.S. Customs
and Border Protection Officer who is
responsible for inspecting such cargo or
conveyance for further inspection; and
``(v) refer to a Supervisory Image
Adjudicator any image of a vehicle or cargo
that is difficult to adjudicate due to poor
image quality or other factors.
``(B) Supervisory image adjudicator.--There shall
be in the Office of Field Operations, the position of
Supervisory Image Adjudicator, who shall be appointed
in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33
(relating to appointments in the competitive service)
and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and
rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. Each
Supervisory Image Adjudicator shall--
``(i) carry out all of the duties described
in clauses (i) through (iii) of subparagraph
(A);
``(ii) review and make a determination
regarding images referred by an Image
Adjudicator pursuant to subparagraph (A)(v);
``(iii) receive intelligence from the
National Targeting Center regarding tactics,
techniques, and procedures being used at ports
of entry and in the border environment by
malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry
or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist
weapons, and persons who are seeking to
unlawfully enter or exit the United States; and
``(iv) report new intelligence to the
National Targeting Center regarding tactics,
techniques, and procedures being used at ports
of entry and in the border environment by
malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry
or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist
weapons, and persons who are seeking to
unlawfully enter the United States.
``(C) Training requirements.--All Image
Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators shall
receive annual training and additional ad hoc training,
to the extent necessary based on current trends,
regarding--
``(i) privacy and civil liberties,
including the protections of the First and
Fourth Amendments to the United States
Constitution;
``(ii) analyzing images generated by non-
intrusive inspection technologies deployed by
U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and
``(iii) tactics, techniques, and procedures
being used at ports of entry and in the border
environment by malign actors to facilitate the
unlawful entry or exit of contraband, illicit
drugs, terrorist weapons, and persons who are
seeking to unlawfully enter the United States.
``(D) Annual assessment.--All Image Adjudicators
and Supervisory Image Adjudicators shall receive an
annual assessment with respect to their--
``(i) accuracy in image analysis;
``(ii) timeliness in image analysis; and
``(iii) ability to ascertain tactics,
techniques, and procedures being used at ports
of entry and in the border environment by
malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry
or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist
weapons, and persons who are seeking to
unlawfully enter the United States.''.
SEC. 3. WORKFORCE STAFFING MODEL.
(a) Development.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection shall develop a workforce staffing model for Image
Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators described in section
211(g)(6) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended by section
2, based upon--
(1) the deployment of non-intrusive inspection technologies
at ports of entry and international rail crossings;
(2) border traffic patterns; and
(3) scanning goals at each port of entry and international
rail crossing.
(b) Validation.--Not later than 6 months after the completion of
the workforce staffing model described in subsection (a), the
Comptroller General of the United States shall validate such workforce
staffing model.
SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.
Upon completion of the validation of the workforce staffing model
pursuant to section 3(b), and quarterly thereafter, the Commissioner of
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in consultation with the Executive
Assistant Commissioner, shall submit a report to the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that
identifies--
(1) the number of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image
Adjudicators hired during the reporting period;
(2) the number of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image
Adjudicators currently employed by the Office of Field
Operations, disaggregated by port of entry;
(3) the average number of images scanned by each Image
Adjudicator;
(4) training methodologies utilized to train Image
Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators;
(5) assessment passage rates of Image Adjudicators and
Supervisory Image Adjudicators; and
(6) the impact of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image
Adjudicators on interdiction rates at ports of entry and
international rail crossings at which Image Adjudicators or
Supervisory Image Adjudicators are stationed, including--
(A) throughput increases or decreases at such ports
of entry and rail crossings;
(B) increases or decreases in waiting times at such
ports of entry and rail crossings; and
(C) increases or decreases of seizures of
contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist weapons, and
persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United
States, broken down by type of seizure and port of
entry or rail crossing.
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