APHIS is the lead federal agency for preventing infestations of harmful foreign pests and diseases, protecting U.S. agriculture, and preserving the marketability of agricultural products in the United States and abroad. The agency’s Plant Protection and Quarantine unit (PPQ) exercises regulatory authority to inspect agricultural imports, as well as nonagricultural products that may carry pests, largely through its Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) activities. In fiscal year 1996, APHIS allocated an estimated $151.9 million for AQI activities and had about 2,600 inspectors located at 172 land, sea, and air ports of entry. APHIS has other inspection duties, such as inspections of imported and exported live animals, that are not the subject of this report. APHIS is one of the three primary Federal Inspection Service (FIS) agencies responsible for monitoring the entry of cargo and passengers into the United States. The two other FIS agencies are the U.S. Customs Service in the Department of the Treasury and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in the Department of Justice. The U.S. Customs Service is primarily concerned with collecting duties on imports, enforcing antismuggling laws, and interdicting narcotics and drugs. INS inspects foreign visitors to determine their admissibility into the United States and guards against illegal entry. Recent multilateral trade agreements—the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the results of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade’s Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Uruguay Round)—have provisions that affect APHIS’ inspection activities. Both agreements contain provisions on signatories’ use of sanitary and phytosanitary standards that limit the introduction of foreign pests and diseases. To prevent the standards from impeding agricultural trade, they must be based on scientific principles and risk assessment, provide a level of protection appropriate to the risk faced, and not restrict trade more than necessary. APHIS’ inspection workload has increased dramatically since 1990 because of growth in imports and exports, increased travel, and increased smuggling. Furthermore, policy changes have exacerbated workload demands by increasing pressure to expedite the processing of passengers and cargo into the United States. The workload has been directly affected by the increase in international trade and travel between fiscal years 1990 and 1995. Overall, the volume of exports and imports rose 45 percent and 52 percent, respectively, while agricultural exports and imports increased 35 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Moreover, the number of international passengers traveling to the United States increased almost 50 percent, reaching 55 million passengers in fiscal year 1995. Furthermore, increases in the number of ports of entry, as well as increased risk at existing ports, have expanded APHIS’ workload. Along the Mexican border alone, six new border stations were approved between 1988 and 1993, while several other major facilities are scheduled for expansion. According to APHIS officials, each new port of entry requires at least five inspectors. Along the U.S.-Canadian border, changes in risks associated with passengers and cargo have created the need for increased inspections. APHIS staff at the Blaine, Washington, port told us that increased risks were responsible for an increase from 4 inspectors in 1990 to 18 in 1996. In addition to conducting inspections, inspectors are responsible for reviewing and issuing certificates for agricultural exports, working on temporary assignments away from their normal work location, and performing other duties, such as preventing smuggling and fumigating cargo. As exports increase, inspectors have had to issue and review a growing number of certificates for U.S. exports. Temporary duty assignments range from domestic emergency eradication of pests and diseases and foreign preclearance activities to meetings and training. Studies in California and Florida have found that the smuggling of agricultural products into the United States has grown and presents a serious pest risk. As a result of increased smuggling activity across the Canadian and Mexican borders, APHIS inspectors are performing antismuggling activities, such as working on investigations and surveillance of markets and border areas. Along with the greater inspection workload, inspectors face increasing pressure to expedite the flow of goods and people across U.S. borders. Responding to the growing importance of trade to the national economy and to recent trade agreements, APHIS has taken an active role in facilitating trade. Towards this end, APHIS and its FIS partners have adopted new customer service standards to move the increasing import and passenger volume through ports of entry within specific periods. For passengers, these standards call upon the agencies to clear international airline passengers within 45 minutes of arrival. Similarly, APHIS has adopted standards to schedule inspections of perishable cargo within 3 hours of being notified of its arrival. APHIS acknowledges the conflict between enforcement responsibilities and trade facilitation and is seeking an appropriate balance as guidance for the inspection program. APHIS made a number of changes to its inspection program to respond to the demands of its growing workload. It shifted funds and staff away from other programs to the inspection program, broadened the range of inspection techniques, and stepped up efforts to coordinate with the other FIS agencies. In addition, to help measure the effectiveness of its inspections and to form a basis for making further improvements, APHIS recently initiated an effort to compare the rate at which restricted items are entering the United States, and the risks associated with those items, with the inspection rates at individual ports of entry. This effort is designed to determine if the current inspection program is adequately addressing the risks of harmful pests and disease entering the country and to identify which of the country’s ports of entry are most vulnerable to such risks. APHIS has been shifting more funds into inspection activities since fiscal year 1990. Through fiscal year 1996, the budget for AQI activities rose 78 percent to $151.9 million, while APHIS’ overall funding rose 20 percent. To provide this increased funding, APHIS reduced its spending for several other programs, such as the brucellosis eradication program, which fell from $59 million in 1990 to $23 million in 1996. The 1990 and 1996 farm bills also authorized the collection of and expanded access to user fees for inspections. User fees have become the principal revenue source for the AQI program, accounting for about $127 million of program revenues in fiscal year 1996. (See app. II for more detail on funding and staffing for fiscal years 1990-96.) Since 1990, APHIS has raised AQI staffing levels about 44 percent—from 1,785 to 2,570 positions. The agency shifted positions from other programs to meet the increased workload. In addition, as a result of the 1996 farm bill’s provisions allowing greater access to user fee revenues and removing a staff ceiling, APHIS is in the process of hiring about 200 new inspectors. APHIS has taken several steps to make better use of its inspection resources. To supplement the normal practice of performing visual inspections of selected cargo and baggage, APHIS has significantly expanded the use of alternative inspection practices, such as detector dogs and x-ray equipment. APHIS increased the number of detector dog teams from 12 in 1989 to 48 in 1996. Inspectors are also periodically using inspection blitzes—highly intensive inspections of baggage or cargo—to augment their visual inspection of selected items. To improve its ability to select passengers for inspection, APHIS is refining the list of risk characteristics that inspectors use in selecting passenger bags for inspection. Roving inspectors currently use these selection characteristics in airports to make referrals for agricultural inspection. The agency is also studying opportunities to use roving inspectors at land border ports. Finally, APHIS is funding research on new x-ray technology that will identify air passengers’ baggage containing restricted items. APHIS has also attempted to reduce the workload at entry ports by (1) inspecting passengers and products in the country of origin or (2) allowing lower-risk products to enter with less intensive scrutiny. Under the first effort, APHIS has staff oversee or conduct inspections to preclear products and passenger baggage in the country of origin so that inspectors at receiving U.S. ports primarily monitor these products or baggage. APHIS’ International Services unit now operates cargo preclearance inspections in 29 countries and limited passenger preclearance programs in 2 countries. In addition, APHIS initiated a cargo release program along the Mexican border to reduce inspections of high-volume, low-risk commodities and allow the products to enter with less intensive scrutiny. For example, according to APHIS, the port of entry with the highest volume of agricultural imports from Mexico—Nogales, Arizona—had about 75 percent of its shipments in 1995 in the cargo release program. In addition to taking steps aimed at improving the use of its own resources, APHIS is working with the other FIS agencies—Customs and INS—to improve coordination. For example, several work units are working with the FIS agencies, through Port Quality Improvement Committees, to improve port operations and are cross-training FIS staff to educate them on APHIS’ inspection needs. In 1996, the FIS agencies and the Department of State issued a report with recommendations for improving screening of passengers as they arrive at U.S. borders. In 1996, APHIS began providing computer equipment to 33 maritime ports and 26 airports to enable them to link up with information in Custom’s databases on cargo and prior violations. APHIS is trying to improve the linkage with the cargo manifest database to overcome early problems in obtaining and reviewing cargo information. For example, APHIS is developing its Automated Targeting System, which will automatically scan Custom’s cargo manifest database to identify shipments for inspection. In October 1996, APHIS began implementing the AQI Results Monitoring Program, which is intended to measure the effectiveness of its inspections nationwide and provide information on which ports of entry pose the highest risk of having harmful pests and diseases enter the country.