A bipartisan bill to require significantly more commercial and passenger vehicles are scanned by X-ray systems as they enter the U.S. at land ports was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday.
The benchmark called for in the Non-Intrusive Inspection Expansion Act would be 90 percent of commercial vehicles and 40 percent of passenger vehicles in fiscal year 2024. The bill was introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas).
In fiscal year 2021, Customs and Border Protection scanned less than 2 percent of passenger vehicles and 15 percent of fixed occupant commercial vehicles entering the U.S. at land ports of entry on the southwest border with Mexico using non-intrusive inspection (NII) technology. In FY ’23, the agency expects to increase NII scans of these vehicles to as much as 40 percent and greater than 70 percent, respectively, an agency official told a House panel in May.
The four-page bill says the 40 and 90 percent scanning rates would be cumulative for each passenger and cargo vehicle screening.
“Texas is the top exporting state in America, and more than $230 billion in goods is transported between Texas and Mexico alone each year,” Cornyn said in a statement. “By expanding the use of non-intrusive inspection technologies, this legislation would help CBP officers to efficiently examine cargo coming into and out of Texas while keeping our border secure.”
In subsequent fiscal years, the bill restates the congressional mandate that CBP achieve 100 percent scanning of passenger and commercial vehicles entering the U.S.
CBP has hundreds of millions of dollars previously appropriated to expand NII scanning at ports of entry. The agency in 2020 awarded contracts to multiple vendors to begin increasing the number of cars and trucks entering the U.S. at pre-primary inspection lanes without requiring occupants to exit their vehicles.