I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 993
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a plan to identify,
integrate, and deploy new, innovative, disruptive, or other emerging or
advanced technologies to enhance, or address capability gaps in, border
security operations, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. C
ORREA(for himself and Mr. LUTTRELL) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop
a plan to identify, integrate, and deploy new, innovative,
disruptive, or other emerging or advanced technologies
to enhance, or address capability gaps in, border security
operations, 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 ‘‘Emerging Innovative 4
Border Technologies Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. INNOVATIVE AND EMERGING BORDER TECH-1
NOLOGY PLAN. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 3
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Home-4
land Security, acting through the Commissioner of U.S. 5
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Under 6
Secretary for Science and Technology of the Department 7
of Homeland Security, shall submit to the Committee on 8
Homeland Security of the House of Representatives and 9
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 10
Affairs of the Senate a plan to identify, integrate, and de-11
ploy new, innovative, disruptive, or other emerging or ad-12
vanced technologies that may incorporate artificial intel-13
ligence, machine-learning, automation, fiber-optic sensing 14
technology, nanotechnology, optical and cognitive radar, 15
modeling and simulation technology, hyperspectral and 16
LIDAR sensors, imaging, identification, and categoriza-17
tion systems, or other emerging or advanced technologies, 18
to enhance, or address capability gaps in, border security 19
operations. 20
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The plan required under subsection 21
(a) shall include the following: 22
(1) Information regarding how CBP utilizes 23
CBP Innovation Team authority under subsection 24
(c) and other mechanisms to carry out the purposes 25
specified in subsection (a). 26
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(2) An assessment of the contributions directly 1
attributable to such utilization. 2
(3) Information regarding the composition of 3
each CBP Innovation Team, and how each such 4
Team coordinates and integrates efforts with the 5
CBP acquisition program office and other partners 6
within CBP and the Department of Homeland Secu-7
rity. 8
(4) Identification of technologies used by other 9
Federal departments or agencies not in use by CBP 10
that could assist in enhancing, or addressing capa-11
bility gaps in, border security operations. 12
(5) An analysis of authorities available to CBP 13
to procure technologies referred to subsection (a), 14
and an assessment as to whether additional or alter-15
native authorities are needed to carry out the pur-16
poses specified in such subsection. 17
(6) An explanation of how CBP plans to scale 18
existing programs related to emerging or advanced 19
technologies into programs of record. 20
(7) A description of each planned security-re-21
lated technology program, including objectives, goals, 22
and timelines for each such program. 23
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(8) An assessment of the privacy and security 1
impact on border communities of security-related 2
technology. 3
(9) An assessment of CBP legacy border tech-4
nology programs that could be phased out and re-5
placed by technologies referred to in subsection (a), 6
and cost estimates relating to such phase out and 7
replacement. 8
(10) Information relating to how CBP is coordi-9
nating with the Department of Homeland Security’s 10
Science and Technology Directorate to carry out the 11
following: 12
(A) Research and develop new, innovative, 13
disruptive, or other emerging or advanced tech-14
nologies to carry out the purposes specified in 15
subsection (a). 16
(B) Identify security-related technologies 17
that are in development or deployed by the pri-18
vate and public sectors that may satisfy the 19
mission needs of CBP, with or without adapta-20
tion. 21
(C) Incentivize the private sector to de-22
velop technologies that may help CBP meet 23
mission needs to enhance, or address capability 24
gaps in, border security operations. 25
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(D) Identify and assess ways to increase 1
opportunities for communication and collabora-2
tion with the private sector, small and dis-3
advantaged businesses, intra-governmental enti-4
ties, university centers of excellence, and Fed-5
eral laboratories to leverage emerging tech-6
nology and research within the public and pri-7
vate sectors. 8
(11) Information on metrics and key perform-9
ance parameters for evaluating the effectiveness of 10
efforts to identify, integrate, and deploy new, inno-11
vative, disruptive, or other emerging or advanced 12
technologies to carry out the purposes specified in 13
subsection (a). 14
(12) An identification of recent technological 15
advancements in the following: 16
(A) Manned aircraft sensor, communica-17
tion, and common operating picture technology. 18
(B) Unmanned aerial systems and related 19
technology, including counter-unmanned aerial 20
system technology. 21
(C) Surveillance technology, including the 22
following: 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. 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. 13
(F) Communications equipment, including 14
the following: 15
(i) Radios. 16
(ii) Long-term evolution broadband. 17
(iii) Miniature satellites. 18
(13) Any other information the Secretary deter-19
mines relevant. 20
(c) CBP I
NNOVATIONTEAMAUTHORITY.— 21
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner of CBP 22
is authorized to maintain one or more CBP Innova-23
tion Teams to research and adapt commercial tech-24
nologies that are new, innovative, disruptive, or oth-25
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erwise emerging or advanced that may be used by 1
CBP to enhance, or address capability gaps in, bor-2
der security operations and urgent mission needs, 3
and assess potential outcomes, including any nega-4
tive consequences, of the introduction of emerging or 5
advanced technologies with respect to which docu-6
mented capability gaps in border security operations 7
are yet to be determined. 8
(2) O
PERATING PROCEDURES , PLANNING, STRA-9
TEGIC GOALS.—The Commissioner of CBP shall re-10
quire each team maintained pursuant to paragraph 11
(1) to establish the following: 12
(A) Operating procedures that include 13
specificity regarding roles and responsibilities 14
within each such team and with respect to De-15
partment of Homeland Security and non-Fed-16
eral partners, and protocols for entering into 17
agreements to rapidly transition such tech-18
nologies to existing or new programs of record 19
to carry out the purposes specified in subsection 20
(a). 21
(B) Planning and strategic goals for each 22
such team that includes projected costs, time 23
frames, metrics, and key performance param-24
eters relating to the achievement of identified 25
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strategic goals, including a metric to measure 1
the rate at which technologies described in sub-2
section (a) are transitioned to existing or new 3
programs of record in accordance with subpara-4
graph (A). 5
(3) R
EPORTING.—Not later than 180 days after 6
the date of the enactment of this Act and annually 7
thereafter, the Commissioner of CBP shall submit to 8
the Committee on Homeland Security of the House 9
of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland 10
Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate in-11
formation relating to the activities of CBP Innova-12
tion Teams, including information regarding the fol-13
lowing: 14
(A) Copies of operating procedures and 15
protocols under paragraph (2)(A) and planning 16
and strategic goals required under paragraph 17
(2)(B). 18
(B) Descriptions of the technologies piloted 19
by each such team over the immediately pre-20
ceding fiscal year, including information regard-21
ing which such technologies are determined suc-22
cessful and an identification of documented ca-23
pability gaps that are addressed. 24
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(C) Information on the status of efforts to 1
rapidly transition technologies determined suc-2
cessful to existing or new programs of record. 3
Æ
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