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