[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1655 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1655

 To enhance the safety of ports of entry in the United States, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 19, 2009

  Mr. Reyes (for himself, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. 
    Filner, Mr. Teague, Mr. Cuellar, Ms. Giffords, Mr. Bilbray, Mr. 
  Rohrabacher, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Pastor of Arizona, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. 
 Abercrombie, Mr. Doggett, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Ms. Jackson-Lee of 
 Texas, Mr. Langevin, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Rothman of New Jersey, Mr. 
    Stupak, Mr. Baca, Mr. Blumenauer, Mrs. Davis of California, Mr. 
     Gonzalez, Mr. Honda, Mr. Klein of Florida, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. 
Ruppersberger, and Mr. Sires) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in addition to the 
   Committees on Ways and Means, Agriculture, and Transportation and 
   Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To enhance the safety of ports of entry in the United States, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Putting Our Resources Towards 
Security (PORTS) Act''.

SEC. 2. INCREASE IN NUMBER OF CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION OFFICERS.

    (a) Customs and Border Protection Officers.--During the 5-year 
period between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security shall, subject to the availability of appropriations for such 
purpose, increase by not fewer than 5,000 the total number of full-
time, active-duty Customs and Border Protection Officers within United 
States Customs and Border Protection for posting at United States ports 
of entry above the number of such officers for which funds were made 
available during fiscal year 2009.
    (b) Agriculture Specialists.--During the 5-year period between 
fiscal years 2010 and 2014, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, 
subject to the availability of appropriations for such border security 
purposes, increase by not fewer than a total of 1,200 the number of 
full-time Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists for 
United States ports of entry above the number of such support personnel 
for which funds were made available during fiscal year 2009.
    (c) Border Security Support Personnel.--During the 5-year period 
between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, the Secretary of Homeland Security 
shall, subject to the availability of appropriations for such purpose, 
increase by not fewer than a total of 350 the number of full-time 
border security support personnel for United States ports of entry 
above the number of such support personnel for which funds were made 
available during fiscal year 2009.

SEC. 3. IMPROVING PORTS OF ENTRY FOR BORDER SECURITY AND OTHER 
              PURPOSES.

    (a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the 
Administrator of the General Services Administration $1,000,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014 to make improvements to existing 
ports of entry in the United States to improve border security and for 
other purposes.
    (b) Priority.--In making improvements described in subsection (a), 
the Administrator of the General Services Administration, in 
coordination with the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, 
shall give priority to the ports of entry that the Administrator 
determines are in most need of repair to improve border security and 
for other purposes in accordance with port of entry infrastructure 
assessment studies required in section 603 of title VI, division E, of 
the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 (Public Law 101-161).
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