The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved a number of homeland security bills, including a measure to reauthorize and expand authorities for countering-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS).
The bipartisan bills were approved en bloc by voice vote and must still be considered by the full Senate.
The Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act (S. 4687) reauthorizes the current C-UAS authorities of the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice and expands them to state, local, tribal and territorial law enforcers and critical infrastructure entities, and would allow the Transportation Security Administration to protect transportation infrastructure from drone threats, including being able to detect, track, identify, monitor and mitigate.
The C-UAS legislation was introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the committee, and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a member of the committee. The current counter-drone authorities for DHS and DoJ expire in October.
The Non-Intrusive Inspection Expansion Act (S. 4572), introduced by Peters and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) would require Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to conduct non-intrusive inspection (NII) technology scans of at least 40 percent of passenger vehicles and at least 90 percent of commercial vehicles entering the U.S. at land ports of entry by the end of fiscal year 2024.
CBP has said it expects to increase NII scans of commercial vehicles to more than 70 percent and passenger vehicles to 40 percent by the end of FY ’23. In FY ’21, these scanning rates at the U.S. southwest border land ports of entry were 15 percent and 2 percent, respectively, CBP has said.
The agency has been introducing new NII systems that screen passenger vehicles at lower energy levels to allow occupants to remain in their cars as they drive through a pre-primary inspection lane. CBP is also deploying new multi-energy portals that scan the occupied cab of a commercial truck at low energy levels and then automatically switch to higher energies to scan the cargo portion of the vehicle.
The NII bill includes an amendment by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) that directs CBP to report on the feasibility of conducting scans on 10 percent of all vehicles exiting the U.S. through land ports of entry by Sept. 30, 2024.
The Offices of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and Health Security Act (S. 4465) would make permanent the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office and Office of Health Security within DHS. The bill was introduced by Peters and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the ranking member on the committee.