The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday approved several authorization bills for the Department of Homeland Security, including a measure directing Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to significantly increase electronic scans of the number of vehicles entering the U.S.
The Non-Intrusive Inspection (NII) Expansion Act (S. 1822) calls for the use of NII systems to screen at least 40 percent of passenger vehicles and 90 percent of commercial vehicles, respectively, entering the U.S. through land ports of entry by Sept. 30, 2026. Currently, CBP scans about 1 to 2 percent of passenger vehicles and 15 percent of commercial vehicles, but the agency is in the process of deploying a new-generation of scanners that will make it easier to screen vehicles as they proceed to primary inspection points at land ports of entry.
The NII bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich), the chairman of the committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas), also directs CBP beginning in fiscal year 2027 to use NII systems to “reach the next projected benchmark for incremental scanning of passenger and commercial vehicles entering the United States” at land ports of entry.
Congress has previously mandated that DHS scan 100 percent of all vehicles entering the U.S.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the ranking member on the committee, voted against the bill, arguing that it will cost in the “multi-billion-dollar range” to use NII systems to scan a larger percentage of vehicles and that so far, an “adequate cost assessment” has not been done. Congress several years ago appropriated nearly $600 million for the purchase of the new NII systems and since then has added more funding to the program.
The NII systems are a priority for the Biden administration and many in Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, because they make it difficult for drug smugglers to hide their contraband in any vehicle.
The committee also passed a bill, nine to three, the DHS International Cyber Partner Act (S. 1862), authorizing DHS to assign personnel overseas to help foreign partners protect their networks and infrastructure.
“This bill will strengthen our cybersecurity here in the United States by improving our information sharing with these partners, giving us a better view into how our adversaries operate and allowing us to be better prepared when we face similar attacks,” Peters said in support of the bill.
Paul opposed the bill, saying U.S. allies and partners should pay for any help the U.S. provides and cautioned that these allies and partners are likely to engage in offensive cyber operations, which could implicate DHS in their missions.
“So, I would not want to expand the role of DHS into this area,” he said.
Another cybersecurity measure passed by the committee, the National Cybersecurity Awareness Act (S. 1835), would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to maintain a sustained campaign of outreach and awareness to ensure its “voluntary resources are available” to federal, state, local and private entities that need them, Peters said.
The bill was approved by a 10 to two vote, with Paul again opposed, saying that DHS and CISA have repeatedly turned “what often starts out as an innocuous sound program…into an invasion of America’s civil liberties and privacy interests,” adding that DHS is using existing “authorities to surveil and censor Americans.”
The committee also approved the reauthorization of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction and the establishment of the Office of Health Security within DHS. The CWMD Office tests and acquires chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threat detection equipment for DHS components.