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

To establish Image Adjudicator and Supervisory Image Adjudicator positions in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023 2. New Office of Field Operations positions authorized Section 411(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 ( 6 U.S.C. 211(g) (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. . 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. 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 Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives (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.

Summary: Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade (BEST) Facilitation Act of 2023 This bill establishes positions within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to review inspection images of vehicles and cargo entering or exiting the United States. Specifically, the bill establishes the position of image adjudicator within the CBP Office of Field Operations. An image adjudicator must (1) review nonintrusive inspection images of vehicles and cargo entering or exiting the United States; (2) assess whether such vehicles and cargo contain contraband, illicit drugs, weapons, or persons seeking to unlawfully enter the United States; and (3) refer suspicious vehicles and cargo for further inspection by a CBP officer. The bill also establishes the position of supervisory image adjudicator with additional responsibilities, including receiving and reporting intelligence to the National Targeting Center about techniques used by malign actors to transport contraband, illicit drugs, weapons, and persons seeking to unlawfully enter the United States. The bill establishes annual training requirements for both image adjudicator and supervisory image adjudicator positions, including training on privacy and civil liberties and how to analyze inspection images. Within a year of this bill's enactment, CBP must develop a workforce staffing model for these positions. The Government Accountability Office must validate the model within six months of the model's completion.