I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 163
To authorize certain appropriations for certain fiscal years for Operation
Stonegarden, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. T
ONYGONZALESof Texas introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in addition to the
Committee on the Judiciary, 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 authorize certain appropriations for certain fiscal years
for Operation Stonegarden, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Security First Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. OPERATION STONEGARDEN APPROPRIATIONS AND 5
TRUST FUND. 6
(a) C
ERTAINAPPROPRIATIONS.—There is authorized 7
to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2024 through 8
2027 $180,000,000 for the Operation Stonegarden grant 9
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program, and not less than $60,000,000 for each of fiscal 1
years 2024 through 2027 to procure technology and equip-2
ment, including communications equipment, sensors, and 3
drone technology. 4
(b) O
PERATIONSTONEGARDENTRUSTFUND.— 5
(1) C
REATION OF TRUST FUND .—There is es-6
tablished in the Treasury of the United States a 7
trust fund to be known as the ‘‘Operation 8
Stonegarden Trust Fund’’ (referred to in this sec-9
tion as the ‘‘Trust Fund’’), consisting of amounts 10
transferred to the Trust Fund under paragraph (2). 11
(2) T
RANSFERS TO TRUST FUND .—The Sec-12
retary of the Treasury shall transfer to the Trust 13
Fund, from the general fund of the Treasury, for 14
fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter until 15
2027, an amount equivalent to the amount received 16
into the general fund during that fiscal year attrib-17
utable to unreported monetary instruments seized by 18
U.S. Customs and Border Protection from individ-19
uals crossing the United States and Mexico border. 20
(3) U
SE OF TRUST FUND .—Amounts in the 21
Trust Fund shall be made available to the Secretary 22
of Homeland Security, without further appropria-23
tion, to fund the Operation Stonegarden grant pro-24
gram. 25
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(4) LIMITATION.—The Secretary may only ex-1
pend funds made available from the Trust Fund to 2
carry out the activity described in paragraph (3). 3
(5) M
ONETARY INSTRUMENT .— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 5
subparagraph (B), a monetary instrument 6
means— 7
(i) coin or currency of the United 8
States or of any other country; 9
(ii) traveler’s checks in any form; 10
(iii) negotiable instruments, including 11
checks, promissory notes, and money or-12
ders in bearer form, endorsed without re-13
striction, made out to a fictitious payee, or 14
otherwise in such form that title thereto 15
passes upon delivery; 16
(iv) incomplete instruments, including 17
checks, promissory notes, and money or-18
ders that are signed but on which the 19
name of the payee has been omitted; and 20
(v) securities or stock in bearer form 21
or otherwise in such form that title thereto 22
passes upon delivery. 23
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(B) EXCEPTION.—A monetary instrument 1
referred to in subparagraph (A) does not in-2
clude— 3
(i) checks or money orders made pay-4
able to the order of a named person which 5
have not been endorsed or which bear re-6
strictive endorsements; 7
(ii) warehouse receipts; or 8
(iii) bills of lading. 9
SEC. 3. REPORT RELATING TO HIRING PRACTICES OF THE 10
DEPARTMENT FROM 2018 TO 2021. 11
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than 120 days after the date 12
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 13
to the appropriate congressional committees a report relat-14
ing to the hiring practices of the Department that in-15
cludes— 16
(1) information relating to the recruiting prac-17
tices of the Department from 2018 to 2021; and 18
(2) recommendations with respect to improving 19
the operational capacity of the Department work-20
force. 21
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 22
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -23
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-24
mittees’’ means— 25
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(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 1
and the Committee on Appropriations of the 2
House of Representatives; and 3
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 4
and Governmental Affairs and the Committee 5
on Appropriations of the Senate. 6
(2) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 7
means the Department of Homeland Security. 8
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 9
the Secretary of Homeland Security. 10
SEC. 4. DESIGNATION OF MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS AS TER-11
RORIST ORGANIZATIONS. 12
(a) R
EPORT.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 14
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 15
shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-16
mittees a report on whether Mexican drug cartels 17
meet the criteria for designation as foreign terrorist 18
organizations. 19
(2) M
EXICAN DRUG CARTELS DESCRIBED .—The 20
Mexican drug cartels described in this paragraph are 21
each of the following: 22
(A) Jalisco New Generation Cartel. 23
(B) Sinaloa Cartel. 24
(C) Juarez Cartel. 25
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(D) Tijuana Cartel. 1
(E) Gulf Cartel. 2
(F) Los Zetas. 3
(b) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 4
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -5
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-6
mittees’’ means— 7
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 8
the Committee on Homeland Security of the 9
House of Representatives; and 10
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations 11
and the Committee on Homeland Security and 12
Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 13
(2) F
OREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION .—The 14
term ‘‘foreign terrorist organization’’ has the mean-15
ing given the term in section 219 of the Immigration 16
and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189). 17
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 18
the Secretary of State. 19
SEC. 5. SOUTHERN BORDER TECHNOLOGY NEEDS ANAL-20
YSIS AND UPDATES. 21
(a) T
ECHNOLOGYNEEDSANALYSIS.—Not later than 22
1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 23
Secretary shall submit, to the appropriate congressional 24
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committees, a technology needs analysis for border secu-1
rity technology along the Southwest border. 2
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The analysis required under sub-3
section (a) shall include an assessment of— 4
(1) the technology needs and gaps along the 5
Southwest border— 6
(A) to prevent terrorists and instruments 7
of terror from entering the United States; 8
(B) to combat and reduce cross-border 9
criminal activity, including, but not limited to— 10
(i) the transport of illegal goods, such 11
as illicit drugs; and 12
(ii) human smuggling and human 13
trafficking; and 14
(C) to facilitate the flow of legal trade 15
across the Southwest border; 16
(2) recent technological advancements in— 17
(A) manned aircraft sensor, communica-18
tion, and common operating picture technology; 19
(B) unmanned aerial systems and related 20
technology, including counter-unmanned aerial 21
system technology; 22
(C) surveillance technology, including— 23
(i) mobile surveillance vehicles; 24
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(ii) associated electronics, including 1
cameras, sensor technology, and radar; 2
(iii) tower-based surveillance tech-3
nology; 4
(iv) advanced unattended surveillance 5
sensors; and 6
(v) deployable, lighter-than-air, 7
ground surveillance equipment; 8
(D) nonintrusive inspection technology, in-9
cluding non-X-ray devices utilizing muon to-10
mography and other advanced detection tech-11
nology; 12
(E) tunnel detection technology; and 13
(F) communications equipment, includ-14
ing— 15
(i) radios; 16
(ii) long-term evolution broadband; 17
and 18
(iii) miniature satellites; 19
(3) any other technological advancements that 20
the Secretary determines to be critical to the De-21
partment’s mission along the Southwest border; 22
(4) whether the use of the technological ad-23
vances described in paragraphs (2) and (3) will— 24
(A) improve border security; 25
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(B) improve the capability of the Depart-1
ment to accomplish its mission along the South-2
west border; 3
(C) reduce technology gaps along the 4
Southwest border; and 5
(D) enhance the safety of any officer or 6
agent of the Department or any other Federal 7
agency; 8
(5) the Department’s ongoing border security 9
technology development efforts, including efforts 10
by— 11
(A) U.S. Customs and Border Protection; 12
(B) the Science and Technology Direc-13
torate; and 14
(C) the technology assessment office of any 15
other operational component; 16
(6) the technology needs for improving border 17
security, such as— 18
(A) information technology or other com-19
puter or computing systems data capture; 20
(B) biometrics; 21
(C) cloud storage; and 22
(D) intelligence data sharing capabilities 23
among agencies within the Department; 24
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(7) any other technological needs or factors, in-1
cluding border security infrastructure, such as phys-2
ical barriers or dual-purpose infrastructure, that the 3
Secretary determines should be considered; and 4
(8) currently deployed technology or new tech-5
nology that would improve the Department’s abil-6
ity— 7
(A) to reasonably achieve operational con-8
trol and situational awareness along the South-9
west border; and 10
(B) to collect metrics for securing the bor-11
der at and between ports of entry, as required 12
under subsections (b) and (c) of section 1092 of 13
division A of the National Defense Authoriza-14
tion Act for Fiscal Year 2017 (6 U.S.C. 223). 15
(c) U
PDATES.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 17
the submission of the analysis required under sub-18
section (a), and biannually thereafter for the fol-19
lowing 4 years, the Secretary shall submit an update 20
to such analysis to the appropriate congressional 21
committees. 22
(2) C
ONTENTS.—Each update required under 23
paragraph (1) shall include a plan for utilizing the 24
resources of the Department to meet the border se-25
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curity technology needs and gaps identified pursuant 1
to subsection (b), including developing or acquiring 2
technologies not currently in use by the Department 3
that would allow the Department to bridge existing 4
border technology gaps along the Southwest border. 5
(d) I
TEMSTOBECONSIDERED.—In compiling the 6
technology needs analysis and updates required under this 7
section, the Secretary shall consider and examine— 8
(1) technology that is deployed and is sufficient 9
for the Department’s use along the Southwest bor-10
der; 11
(2) technology that is deployed, but is insuffi-12
cient for the Department’s use along the Southwest 13
border; 14
(3) technology that is not deployed, but is nec-15
essary for the Department’s use along the Southwest 16
border; 17
(4) current formal departmental requirements 18
documentation examining current border security 19
threats and challenges faced by any component of 20
the Department; 21
(5) trends and forecasts regarding migration 22
across the Southwest border; 23
(6) the impact on projected staffing and deploy-24
ment needs for the Department, including staffing 25
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needs that may be fulfilled through the use of tech-1
nology; 2
(7) the needs and challenges faced by employees 3
of the Department who are deployed along the 4
Southwest border; 5
(8) the need to improve cooperation among 6
Federal, State, Tribal, local, and Mexican law en-7
forcement entities to enhance security along the 8
Southwest border; 9
(9) the privacy implications of existing tech-10
nology and the acquisition and deployment of new 11
technologies and supporting infrastructure, with an 12
emphasis on how privacy risks might be mitigated 13
through the use of technology, training, and policy; 14
(10) the impact of any ongoing public health 15
emergency that impacts Department operations 16
along the Southwest border; and 17
(11) the ability of, and the needs for, the De-18
partment to assist with search and rescue efforts for 19
individuals or groups that may be in physical danger 20
or in need of medical assistance. 21
(e) F
ORM.—To the extent possible, the Secretary 22
shall submit the technology needs analysis and updates re-23
quired under this section in unclassified form, but may 24
submit such documents, or portions of such documents, 25
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in classified form if the Secretary determines that such 1
action is appropriate. 2
(f) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -4
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-5
mittees’’ means— 6
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 7
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and 8
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 9
of the House of Representatives. 10
(2) D
EPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Department’’ 11
means the Department of Homeland Security. 12
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 13
the Secretary of Homeland Security. 14
(4) S
OUTHWEST BORDER .—The term ‘‘South-15
west border’’ means the international land border 16
between the United States and Mexico, including the 17
ports of entry along such border. 18
Æ
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