Securing the northern border while at the same time facilitating trade is the primary responsibility of various components within DHS, in collaboration with other federal, state, and local entities. CBP is the lead agency responsible for securing the nation’s borders while facilitating legitimate trade and travel. CBP’s Office of Field Operations is responsible for cargo and passenger processing activities related to security, trade, immigration, and agricultural inspection at air, land, and sea POEs. In addition, GSA oversees design, construction, and maintenance for all POEs in consultation with CBP. Within DOT, the Federal Highway Administration provides funding for highway and road construction and administers the Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program that provides funding to support the safe and efficient movement of motor vehicles across the land borders of the United States with Canada and Mexico. In executing its mission, CBP operates 166 land border POEs. Ownership of POEs varies by location. CBP’s land POE inventory consists of 166 ports, 99 owned by GSA, 22 leased by GSA, 1 owned by the National Park Service, and 43 owned by CBP. The remaining port is partially owned and leased by GSA. In general, the CBP-owned ports are small, rural, and characterized by low-traffic volumes. In contrast, GSA-owned ports are large, urban, and high-traffic volume ports. A majority (122 of 166) of land border crossings are located on the northern border, and vary considerably in size, location, and volume. See figure 1 for an example of a POE. In fiscal year 2005, the conference report accompanying DHS’s appropriation directed CBP to submit a master construction plan for fiscal years 2005 through 2009, including purpose, cost, and schedule details for each facility construction planned. Further, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, required DHS to prepare and submit a biennial National Land Border Security Plan. This plan was to include a vulnerability, risk, and threat assessment of each POE located on the northern border or the southern border, beginning in January 2009. Moreover, the DHS Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2009 required in fiscal year 2010 and thereafter that CBP’s annual budget submission for construction include, in consultation with GSA, a detailed 5-year plan for all federal land POE projects with a yearly update of total projected future funding needs. Additionally, to help address infrastructure constraints, in 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act appropriated $720 million for land POE modernization. DHS received $420 million for ports owned by CBP, which CBP plans to use for reconstruction, repairs, and alterations at land POEs. These funds will be used at 21 POEs located along the northern border. The act appropriated the remaining $300 million for the GSA-owned inventory, which is being used to provide design or construction funds to seven new or ongoing capital projects, four of which are along the northern border. Moreover, congressional interest in CBP’s ability to link resources to its mission led Congress to call on CBP to develop resource allocation models. In response to language in the conference report for the fiscal year 2007 DHS appropriation and the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006, CBP developed a staffing model for its land, air, and sea POEs. The conference report directed CBP to develop the staffing model in a way that would align officer resources with threats, vulnerabilities, and workload. The staffing model is designed to determine the optimum number of CBP officers that each POE needs to accomplish its mission responsibilities. Processing commercial vehicles at land POEs involves various steps and requirements. First, carriers are required to submit electronic lists describing what they are shipping, referred to as e-Manifests, to CBP prior to a shipment’s arrival at the border. CBP requires that e-Manifests for FAST shipments be submitted 30 minutes prior to arrival, while e- Manifests for non-FAST shipments must be submitted at least 1 hour before arrival. Second, CBP reviews the e-Manifest using its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) database, among others, and assigns a risk level to the shipment, a process known as pre-vetting. Next, when the commercial truck proceeds into the United States, it must go to the primary inspection booth at the U.S. POEs, where a CBP officer reviews documentation on the exporter, importer, and goods being transported. If the truck’s documentation is consistent with CBP requirements and no further inspections are required, the truck is allowed to pass through the port. Depending on the POE, goods imported, or law enforcement requirements, CBP may direct the commercial truck to secondary inspection. According to CBP, trucks are referred to secondary inspection for numerous reasons, such as officer’s initiative based on experience and training, targeted inspection, or random inspection. Secondary inspection involves more detailed document processing and examinations using other methods, such as the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS), a gamma ray imaging system used to detect various forms of contraband, including explosives and drugs in commercial vehicles; advanced radiation portal monitor (RPM), a vehicle monitoring system used to detect nuclear and radiological materials; or unloading and physical inspection. Trucks that require secondary inspection are inspected by CBP and may be inspected by more than one federal agency, depending on their cargo. For example, FDA, under HHS, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), under the Department of Agriculture, have primary responsibility for food safety. FDA is responsible for the safety of virtually all foods, including milk, seafood, fruits, and vegetables. FSIS oversees the safety of meat, poultry, and processed egg products, both domestic and imported, and verifies that shipments of these products meet FSIS requirements. Figure 2 shows the cargo processing steps at land POE crossings. CBP launched the FAST program in 2002 to include electronic and semi- electronic automated processing for preapproved shipments. The FAST program is intended to secure and facilitate legitimate trade by providing expedited processing of participants’ merchandise in designated traffic lanes at select border sites, fewer referrals to secondary inspections, “front-of-the-line” processing in secondary CBP inspections, and enhanced security. FAST shipments are screened through advanced manifest reviews and targeting, nonintrusive inspections, canine sweeps, and random exams. To be eligible to receive the benefits of the FAST program, every link in the supply chain—the carrier, the importer, and the manufacturer—is required to be certified under the Customs and Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program and the driver must be pre-vetted in the FAST program. C-TPAT is a customs-to-business partnership program that provides benefits to supply chain companies that agree to comply with predetermined security measures. We reported in August 2008 that all C-TPAT participants—the carrier, importer, and manufacturer—are vetted prior to enrollment and are required to certify that they meet program minimum security requirements, such as a secure area to store trailers to prevent unauthorized access or manipulation. Additionally, the (1) driver is required to have a pre-vetted FAST card, (2) truck is required to have a transponder, (3) truck cannot be carrying shipments with loads from multiple shippers that are not C-TPAT certified, and (4) e-Manifest is required to be submitted to CBP 30 minutes prior to arrival at the port. There are approximately 90,000 FAST drivers and 9,830 C-TPAT members, of which 4,400 are importers and 2,721 are carriers. The remaining 2,709 C-TPAT members are brokers, consolidators, and foreign manufacturers. FAST participation has increased substantially since CBP launched the program. However, the number of FAST participants decreased slightly in 2009, as shown in figure 3. All 122 northern border POEs and lanes can process FAST shipments in ACE, but 7 POEs on the northern border have FAST-dedicated lanes. ACE tracks shipments by the types of manifests trucks use to report their shipments. FAST shipments are processed in ACE using two of the various types of manifests—National Customs Automation Program (NCAP), limited to certain types of FAST shipments, and Pre-Arrival Possessing System (PAPS), used by non-FAST and FAST shipments. According to CBP officials, the FAST/NCAP shipment provides limited information compared to a standard e-Manifest and no entry record is filed at the time the shipment is released. For example, the FAST/NCAP manifest does not include the driver information, trailer license plate number, or the quantity of shipment. The driver information and trailer license plate number can be added to the manifest by CBP at the primary inspection point. However, the quantity of shipment must be recorded by the broker when the entry is filed within 10 days of crossing the border. According to CBP, the FAST/NCAP manifest is used primarily by the auto industry. In contrast, the PAPS shipment uses a complete data set, including all the information CBP requires, such as driver information, trailer license plate number, and the quantity of shipments. Additionally, an entry record must be on file before a shipment is released. Approximately 60 percent of FAST shipments are PAPS shipments. CBP is limited in its ability to accurately quantify the impacts of staffing and infrastructure on wait times because its wait times data are collected using inconsistent methods and are unreliable. CBP defines border wait time as the time it takes for a vehicle to travel from the end of the queue to the CBP primary inspection point. CBP calculates and reports wait times hourly at 28 major land POEs along the northern border.