[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2278 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2278

   To establish Image Adjudicator and Supervisory Image Adjudicator 
  positions in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field 
                              Operations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 12, 2023

Mr. Lankford (for himself and Mr. Kelly) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security 
                        and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To establish Image Adjudicator and Supervisory Image Adjudicator 
  positions in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field 
                              Operations.

    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 ``Border Enforcement, Security, and 
Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. NEW OFFICE OF FIELD OPERATIONS POSITIONS AUTHORIZED.

    Section 411(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 
211(g)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) Image adjudicator positions.--
                    ``(A) Image adjudicator.--There shall be in the 
                Office of Field Operations, the position of Image 
                Adjudicator, who shall be appointed in accordance with 
                the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to 
                appointments in the competitive service) and chapters 
                51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay) 
                of title 5, United States Code. Each Image Adjudicator 
                shall--
                            ``(i) review non-intrusive inspection 
                        images of conveyances and containers entering 
                        or exiting the United States through a land, 
                        sea, or air port of entry or rail crossing;
                            ``(ii) assess whether conveyances and 
                        containers contain contraband, illicit drugs, 
                        terrorist weapons, or persons who are seeking 
                        to unlawfully enter or exit the United States;
                            ``(iii) recommend entry for all conveyances 
                        and containers that do not contain contraband, 
                        illicit drugs, terrorist weapons, or persons 
                        seeking to unlawfully enter the United States 
                        to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
                        Officer responsible for inspecting such cargo 
                        or conveyance;
                            ``(iv) refer any conveyances and containers 
                        that the Image Adjudicator reasonably believes 
                        contains contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist 
                        weapons, or persons seeking to unlawfully enter 
                        or exit the United States to the U.S. Customs 
                        and Border Protection Officer who is 
                        responsible for inspecting such cargo or 
                        conveyance for further inspection; and
                            ``(v) refer to a Supervisory Image 
                        Adjudicator any image of a vehicle or cargo 
                        that is difficult to adjudicate due to poor 
                        image quality or other factors.
                    ``(B) Supervisory image adjudicator.--There shall 
                be in the Office of Field Operations, the position of 
                Supervisory Image Adjudicator, who shall be appointed 
                in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33 
                (relating to appointments in the competitive service) 
                and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and 
                rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. Each 
                Supervisory Image Adjudicator shall--
                            ``(i) carry out all of the duties described 
                        in clauses (i) through (iii) of subparagraph 
                        (A);
                            ``(ii) review and make a determination 
                        regarding images referred by an Image 
                        Adjudicator pursuant to subparagraph (A)(v);
                            ``(iii) receive intelligence from the 
                        National Targeting Center regarding tactics, 
                        techniques, and procedures being used at ports 
                        of entry and in the border environment by 
                        malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry 
                        or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist 
                        weapons, and persons who are seeking to 
                        unlawfully enter or exit the United States; and
                            ``(iv) report new intelligence to the 
                        National Targeting Center regarding tactics, 
                        techniques, and procedures being used at ports 
                        of entry and in the border environment by 
                        malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry 
                        or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist 
                        weapons, and persons who are seeking to 
                        unlawfully enter the United States.
                    ``(C) Training requirements.--All Image 
                Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators shall 
                receive annual training and additional ad hoc training, 
                to the extent necessary based on current trends, 
                regarding--
                            ``(i) privacy and civil liberties, 
                        including the protections of the First and 
                        Fourth Amendments to the United States 
                        Constitution;
                            ``(ii) analyzing images generated by non-
                        intrusive inspection technologies deployed by 
                        U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and
                            ``(iii) tactics, techniques, and procedures 
                        being used at ports of entry and in the border 
                        environment by malign actors to facilitate the 
                        unlawful entry or exit of contraband, illicit 
                        drugs, terrorist weapons, and persons who are 
                        seeking to unlawfully enter the United States.
                    ``(D) Annual assessment.--All Image Adjudicators 
                and Supervisory Image Adjudicators shall receive an 
                annual assessment with respect to their--
                            ``(i) accuracy in image analysis;
                            ``(ii) timeliness in image analysis; and
                            ``(iii) ability to ascertain tactics, 
                        techniques, and procedures being used at ports 
                        of entry and in the border environment by 
                        malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry 
                        or exit of contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist 
                        weapons, and persons who are seeking to 
                        unlawfully enter the United States.''.

SEC. 3. WORKFORCE STAFFING MODEL.

    (a) Development.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection shall develop a workforce staffing model for Image 
Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators described in section 
211(g)(6) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended by section 
2, based upon--
            (1) the deployment of non-intrusive inspection technologies 
        at ports of entry and international rail crossings;
            (2) border traffic patterns; and
            (3) scanning goals at each port of entry and international 
        rail crossing.
    (b) Validation.--Not later than 6 months after the completion of 
the workforce staffing model described in subsection (a), the 
Comptroller General of the United States shall validate such workforce 
staffing model.

SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

    Upon completion of the validation of the workforce staffing model 
pursuant to section 3(b), and quarterly thereafter, the Commissioner of 
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in consultation with the Executive 
Assistant Commissioner, shall submit a report to the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 
Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that 
identifies--
            (1) the number of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image 
        Adjudicators hired during the reporting period;
            (2) the number of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image 
        Adjudicators currently employed by the Office of Field 
        Operations, disaggregated by port of entry;
            (3) the average number of images scanned by each Image 
        Adjudicator;
            (4) training methodologies utilized to train Image 
        Adjudicators and Supervisory Image Adjudicators;
            (5) assessment passage rates of Image Adjudicators and 
        Supervisory Image Adjudicators; and
            (6) the impact of Image Adjudicators and Supervisory Image 
        Adjudicators on interdiction rates at ports of entry and 
        international rail crossings at which Image Adjudicators or 
        Supervisory Image Adjudicators are stationed, including--
                    (A) throughput increases or decreases at such ports 
                of entry and rail crossings;
                    (B) increases or decreases in waiting times at such 
                ports of entry and rail crossings; and
                    (C) increases or decreases of seizures of 
                contraband, illicit drugs, terrorist weapons, and 
                persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United 
                States, broken down by type of seizure and port of 
                entry or rail crossing.
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