[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1051 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1051

 To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate John Wayne 
  Airport in Orange County, California, as a U.S. Customs and Border 
        Protection (CBP) port of entry, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 24, 2015

 Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California (for herself, Mr. Rohrabacher, and 
 Mrs. Mimi Walters of California) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the 
    Committee on Homeland Security, 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 direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to designate John Wayne 
  Airport in Orange County, California, as a U.S. Customs and Border 
        Protection (CBP) port of entry, 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. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) On June 4, 2012, John Wayne Airport received an 
        executed copy of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with U.S. 
        Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for Federal Inspection 
        Services (FIS) staffing, which allows for the initiation of 
        international air service.
            (2) On November 15, 2013, John Wayne Airport submitted its 
        formal request for port of entry designation to CBP.
            (3) In a letter dated February 3, 2014, the Acting Port 
        Director advised John Wayne Airport that he had recommended 
        approval of the airport's request for the port of entry 
        designation.
            (4) In a letter dated June 3, 2014, CBP Assistant 
        Commissioner, Office of Congressional Affairs, notified 
        Congress that CBP was ``unable to designate SNA as a POE at 
        this time'', and that CBP would ``reconsider it in FY2016''.
            (5) On July 28, 2014, the House of Representatives passed 
        the United States Customs and Border Protection Authorization 
        Act (H.R. 3846), which included an amendment sponsored by 
        Representative Loretta Sanchez to give ``priority consideration 
        to an application for port of entry status submitted by any 
        commercial airport if such airport served at least 100,000 
        deplaned international passengers in the previous calendar 
        year''.
            (6) In a letter received August 8, 2014, Acting Assistant 
        Commissioner for Field Operation, John Wagner, notified John 
        Wayne Airport Director Alan Murphy that the airport's request 
        could not be approved, but stated that ``SNA's request will 
        remain active, and CBP will reconsider it in FY2016''.
            (7) John Wayne Airport has met the CBP threshold of 15,000 
        international air passengers, having had 377,718 international 
        passengers in 2013 and 276,733 in 2014.
            (8) John Wayne Airport is the only commercial airport that 
        serves Orange County, California, directly and exceeds the 
        minimum population threshold set out by CBP of 300,000, having 
        a population of over 3.1 million residents.
            (9) A recent economic impact study of air service from 
        Mexico to Orange County found that the total annual economic 
        output in the region generated nearly $39 million in wages, 
        salaries, and benefits, $73 million in gross domestic product, 
        and $130 million in total spending impacts.
            (10) As a community that is served by multiple modes of 
        transportation, such as Amtrak and Metrolink of Southern 
        California, John Wayne Airport meets the requirement of multi-
        modal transportation options.

SEC. 2. DESIGNATION AS A U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION PORT OF 
              ENTRY.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall 
designate John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, as a U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) port of entry.
    (b) Maintenance of Numbers.--The Secretary of Homeland Security 
shall assign to John Wayne Airport an appropriate number of personnel 
of the Department of Homeland Security in order for such airport to 
function as a designated CBP port of entry in accordance with 
subsection (a).

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of 
Homeland Security for fiscal year 2016 and subsequent fiscal years such 
sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act.
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