United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. JACKSON LEE. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 3846, the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act.

Mr. Speaker, I am a proud original cosponsor of the bill sponsored by my subcommittee chairman, the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller). We are working throughout this Congress in a bipartisan manner, and it seems that our particular subcommittee has been particularly energized by a number of issues that have come to the attention of the American people.

This is an authorization bill that is long overdue. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is among the largest and most significant of the Department of Homeland Security's components. CBP is charged with ensuring the security of America's borders while facilitating legitimate trade and travel.

I want to take a moment, Mr. Speaker, to just offer my appreciation for the hardworking men and women that come under CBP. They are on the border. They are on the northern and southern borders. They are in our ports, both airports and seaports, and so I think it is appropriate for us to take a moment and express our appreciation.

Might I also, just as another aside, express my appreciation for the transportation security work of the TSOs. As we were working on their issues, we lost one of our very brave agents in the last year. All of them should be appreciated.

Again, despite the essential nature of CBP's mission, it has not been authorized in law since the recognition of the Department of Homeland Security announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff 9 years ago this month. It is imperative that CBP is authorized in law to ensure that Congress can conduct proper oversight of the agency and its programs. This legislation does just that.

I am very pleased to have been part of crafting legislation that really responds to an important need: giving the guidelines and infrastructure and structure to make sure that we have a security arm of the DHS that really works, that we appreciate, and that has a guideline to operate effectively. I am pleased that the bill includes several amendments offered by Democratic members during consideration by the Homeland Security Committee.

Again, I want to thank Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Thompson of the full committee for their bipartisan efforts, working with Chairman Miller and myself on this legislation.

I was particularly pleased that the committee accepted an amendment I offered to help address the recent surge in the number of unaccompanied children entering the U.S. at increasingly younger ages, particularly in my home State of Texas. Let me be very clear: this is a humanitarian crisis and an issue that I think we are finding our way forward on, and I hope as we are passing this legislation, we will also pass the emergency supplemental that is needed for this issue and many others. This issue requires immediate attention from Congress given that the welfare of so many children is at stake.

I am also pleased that, during committee consideration, an amendment offered by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) was adopted to enhance CBP's oversight of an adherence to short-term detention standards at these facilities. While these facilities are not intended to house individuals for long-term immigration detention, it is imperative that basic standards are adhered to in order to ensure the health and well-being of people, including children in CBP custody.

So many of us have gone to the border in years past. I have been in many detention facilities over the years as I have served on this committee. We know that standards are important for whatever facility that we have. Whether they are detention facilities for adults who are coming across illegally or other resources that are needed, we must have a standard.

I am also pleased that the committee accepted an amendment offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell) stating that CBP may not enter into or renew a Trusted Traveler Program agreement with a foreign government unless that government reports lost and stolen passport data to Interpol. We know that passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were traveling on stolen passports, and that enormous tragedy is still unsolved. While the U.S. has relatively limited ability to ensure foreign governments utilize Interpol's database, encouraging them to report their own lost and stolen passports improves the quality of Interpol's list used by the U.S. to screen travelers to and from our country.

That said, I was disappointed the committee did not accept an amendment I offered to increase, by an additional 2,000, the number of CBP officers deployed at our ports of entry. I think we are seeing that there have been a number of State efforts that this number of CBP officers might have countered, and I look forward to us continuing to pursue opportunities to increase those numbers.

Congress recently provided the resources necessary to hire 2,000 additional CBP officers, but still more are needed. I understand current budgetary constraints, but so many of the challenges CBP faces at our ports of entry are related to or affected by persistent staffing shortages. Congress has a responsibility to do its part to alleviate these shortages, and I hope to continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on this important issue.

That said, I strongly support the bill and am pleased that Customs and Border Protection will, for the first time in the years that they have been organized, in 2014, under the present chairman and myself, the ranking member, be authorized in its current form.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me offer just a few thoughts. I am delighted to associate myself with a very important point that the chairman of the committee made, and I will use the terminology ``authorization equals affirmation.''

It is important for us in this Congress to affirm an agency that is handling some of the most precious responsibilities, alongside of the intelligence community, alongside of the United States military, Defense. It is Homeland Security. That is why this is a first start toward making sure that we are, in fact, looking to affirm or reauthorize the importance of this particular agency.

What I would say is that, when we were crafting this bill along with my chairwoman as she introduced this legislation, we were somewhat before this rising surge, and we began to think about what we needed to do to get in front of it. I am very glad that I laid the framework in my language in the bill dealing with having DHS find out what are the causes, how do we address the issue of unaccompanied children that are coming. We might have used the term ``surge.'' It was a surge, but it wasn't at that point.

I believe that facts are crucial, and I think it is important that this bill will encourage some of the things that have already been done. The President has met with the three Presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to determine and assess what the reasons are, how extreme the violence is. The stories are horrific.

And then, of course, to separate out the children who are running toward the men and women in green and begin to look at the border and securing the border, which none of us quarrel with. We realize that there have been some strides--we have worked with the Mexican government--but we also know that drug cartels, drug smugglers, sex traffickers, and human traffickers still prevail, because bad guys are always prevailing. We have to make sure that mixed into those bad guys that have those particular desires are not terrorists that will come and disturb this community or this Nation.

I think this bill lays a good framework for us to collaborate with so many others.

I want to thank Chairman Miller for the bipartisan nature of the work on this bill, and the bills that originate from our committee. I would like to say that this is only the beginning.

I am looking forward to our committee partnering with Judiciary, and that we look to a reauthorization of ICE, which is a partner to the work that is being done on Homeland Security. I think it can be done. We have set a good model here today. As we make our way through the Department of Homeland Security, we have set a very good model on how we can affirm the vitality, the vigorousness, and the crucialness of these subagencies in providing for domestic security.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I am going to conclude my remarks by indicating that I want to, again, express my appreciation for the work that we have done.

As a Houstonian, and as the chairman indicated, we are Texans, we see this, we have seen it, we live with our neighbors, but, more importantly, we live with our friends on the border. Members of Congress are our friends, are our neighbors, and they are a part of this great Nation as well. It gives me a special sense of pride and responsibility to be able to work with their needs.

As someone who has representation over one of the largest ports, along with some of my other colleagues in Houston, the Houston port, these are very important issues. I think America needs to realize that when we safeguard our ports, provide for these agents, and give them an infrastructure of authorization, we affirm them. We are securing the homeland.

I think the border towns have handled this humanitarian crisis with great valor and a great sense of what America is all about. We need to respond to their needs, but we also need to address this question from a perspective of the humanitarian issue that it is and a balanced perspective of securing the border.

I think we have begun that process with this legislation, and I ask my colleagues to support it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3846, the ``United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act.''

I am proud to be an original cosponsor of the bill, sponsored by my Subcommittee Chairman, the gentlelady from Michigan, Mrs. MILLER.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is among the largest and most significant of the Department of Homeland Security's components.

CBP is charged with ensuring the security of America's borders while facilitating legitimate trade and travel.

Despite the essential nature of CBP's mission, it has not been authorized in law since the reorganization of the Department of Homeland Security announced by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff nine years ago this month.

It is imperative that CBP is authorized in law to ensure that Congress can conduct proper oversight of the agency and its programs.

This legislation does just that.

I am pleased that the bill includes several amendments offered by Democratic Members during consideration by the Homeland Security Committee.

I was particularly pleased that the Committee accepted an amendment I offered to help address the recent surge in the number of unaccompanied children entering the U.S., at increasingly younger ages, particularly in my home state of Texas.

This issue requires immediate attention from Congress, given that the welfare of so many children is at stake.

I am also pleased that during Committee consideration an amendment offered by the gentlelady from California, Ms. SANCHEZ, was adopted to enhance CBP's oversight of and adherence to short-term detention standards at its facilities.

While these facilities are not intended to house individuals for long-term immigration detention, it is imperative that basic standards are adhered to in order to ensure the health and wellbeing of people, including children, in CBP custody.

I am also pleased that the Committee accepted an amendment offered by the gentleman from California, Mr. SWALWELL, stating that CBP may not enter into or renew a trusted traveler program agreement with a foreign government unless that government reports lost and stolen passport data to INTERPOL.

We know that passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 were traveling on stolen passports.

While the U.S. has relatively limited ability to ensure foreign governments utilize INTERPOL's database, encouraging them to report their own lost and stolen passports improves the quality of INTERPOL's lists used by the U.S. to screen travelers to and from our country.

That said, I was disappointed that the Committee did not accept an amendment I offered to increase by an additional 2,000 the number of CBP officers deployed at our ports of entry.

Congress recently provided the resources necessary to hire 2,000 additional CBP officers, but still more are needed.

I understand current budgetary constraints, but so many of the challenges CBP faces at our ports of entry are related to or affected by persistent staffing shortages.

Congress has a responsibility to do its part to alleviate those shortages and I hope to continue to work with my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, on this important issue.

That said, I strongly support the bill and am pleased that Customs and Border Protection will, for the first time, be authorized in its current form.

In closing, I would like to thank the gentlelady from Michigan, Mrs. MILLER, for the bipartisan process.

I believe we produced a solid bill that should garner broad bi-partisan support in the House today.

I am particularly pleased that at this time when there is so much rancor about the Administration's response to the influx of fleeing unaccompanied children at our Southwest Border, we are standing together to authorize resources for the CBP to continue to do its part.

With that Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3846, the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act.

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