United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 3846, the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act, and I certainly want to thank my colleagues, the chairman of the full Homeland Security Committee, Mr. McCaul, and the ranking member, Mr. Thompson, and my ranking member on the subcommittee, Ms. Jackson Lee.

The Homeland Security Committee has a strong history of collaboration and bipartisanship, and I think this bill illustrates our ability to find consensus as we work to strengthen the homeland.

This is a very important day not only for the men and women of Customs and Border Protection, CBP, but also for the U.S. House of Representatives. This past week actually marks the 10-year anniversary of the release of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations to Congress. While most of these recommendations were implemented, unfortunately, several remained unfulfilled or incomplete.

Among one of the most important incomplete recommendations was for Congress to create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security. The fractured jurisdiction over the Department of Homeland Security has certainly limited Congress' ability to provide effective guidance to the third largest agency in the Federal Government. In the 10 years since the Department was created, it has never had a comprehensive reauthorization; and, as a result, components such as Customs and Border Protection have never been authorized in statute since being transferred to the Department of Homeland Security through the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

While there remain several committees with overlapping oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, I believe this legislation that is on the floor today is a testament that this body can still work together to fulfill Congress' primary responsibilities under the Constitution.

As I mentioned, CBP, with more than 44,000 law enforcement officers and agents, has never been formally authorized in statute. As a result, CBP operates on devolved authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security and on guidance provided by Congress through annual appropriation bills rather than from specific authority accorded to the component by its authorizers.

H.R. 3846, the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act, is the first attempt by Congress since the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security to clearly delineate the current authorities and responsibilities of the largest Federal law enforcement entity in our Nation. The fact that this agency has been operating for as long as they have without a clear statutory mandate from Congress and the American people certainly is a problem that needs to be corrected.

The Homeland Security Act, when passed nearly 12 years ago, was sort of a snapshot in time that reflects the choices made by Congress to quickly cobble together 22 agencies. Now is the time to update the statute and make changes where necessary to reflect the current security missions of the Department within CBP, which have significantly evolved over the last decade.

For example, after DHS was created, most of the authority for the work CBP currently performs was vested in a position called the Under Secretary of Border and Transportation Security. And if you haven't heard of it lately, it is because it was eliminated by then-Secretary Chertoff in 2005. Nonetheless, the position remains in law. I use that as an example.

So this bill is a first step in fixing outdated provisions from the source legislation that created the Department. Congress has the responsibility to give the Department of Homeland Security and its components the necessary direction through the regular authorization process, and this measure is a very important first step in doing so.

This bill provides a basic outline of the missions and responsibilities that we give to the Commissioner of CBP and its subcomponents--such as the Office of Field Operations, the United States Border Patrol, the Office of Air and Marine Operations, the Office of Intelligence and Investigative Liaison, and the Office of International Affairs--so they know what this Congress expects.

In addition to fixing the outdated provisions in the law, this legislation goes a long way in ensuring transparency and oversight in CBP. This bill also contains strong accountability measures to ensure that agents and officers respect civil rights, civil liberties and use force policies, especially with regard to the use of deadly force.

With the ongoing crisis of unaccompanied children crossing the border in ever-increasing numbers, making sure that we understand the root causes of the surge is vitally important as well. This bill includes a provision that takes a very hard look at why these children are coming so that we can provide the men and women of the Border Patrol and CBP the tools to stem the tide.

Issues like the recent surge remind us of why we need to continually update the authorities of key law enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. CBP's mission continues to change, and this Congress has a duty to give our officers and the agents proper authorities to carry out their important work.

Finally, I want to commend the work and the assistance of CBP and the Department of Homeland Security over the past 2 years since we have started the intricate task of cleaning up the Homeland Security Act. Their assistance really helped to make this bill much better.

I urge my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to support this good government, commonsense legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would just say in closing, first of all, I thought that the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Mr. McCaul, made some excellent, excellent remarks. One of the things that he said that is absolutely true, and I know all of us feel this, is every time we talk to a CBP officer, one of the men and women who so bravely secure our borders, they can't quite believe that Congress has never authorized their agency. It is not a great thing for their morale that we have never really paid them the attention that they deserve.

So I think this bill is, as I said at the beginning of my remarks, such an important first step for this Congress to be able to do that.

With the humanitarian crisis that is happening at our southern border with this tsunami of unaccompanied children that is coming in, we all see the video each and every day of our brave men and women, our CBP officers, trying to handle that. They have responsibilities there, things that they are doing there that are taking them away, quite frankly, as they are handling the children, taking them away from their duties and responsibilities of stopping the drug cartels, et cetera, from entering our borders. I just think this bill is incredibly important.

I would also mention as well, as we talk about the issues on the southern border, which are certainly in all of our news each and every day, but America has more than one border. We have the northern border as well. I see the dean of the House, Mr. Dingell, is on the floor. He and I, both being from the northern border State of Michigan, have worked together very diligently on northern border issues. We have in Michigan the two busiest northern border crossings on the entire northern tier of our Nation there. Again, our CBP officers have stopped so many that wish our Nation harm, whether that is human smuggling or drug smuggling or what have you, we have some unique dynamics on the northern border as well, as well as our maritime border.

Mr. Speaker, this is a very, very important bill. Again, securing the homeland is certainly foremost of all of our responsibilities.

I would once again urge our colleagues to support H.R. 3846, the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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