II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 956
To facilitate the entry and processing of merchandise and trade enforcement,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself and Ms. CORTEZMASTO) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To facilitate the entry and processing of merchandise and
trade enforcement, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Customs Facilitation Act of 2025’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—ONE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AT THE BORDER
Sec. 101. Border Interagency Executive Council.
Sec. 102. Establishment of single window import and export cargo processing
release system.
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Sec. 103. Continued modernization of the Automated Commercial Environment.
Sec. 104. Authorization of appropriations for uniform system for processing
and release of cargo.
TITLE II—MODERNIZING CUSTOMS PROCESSES
Sec. 201. Simplification of drawback procedures.
Sec. 202. Streamlined export processes.
Sec. 203. Treatment of clerical errors in submission of export data.
Sec. 204. Government Accountability Office report on fee schedule of U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection.
Sec. 205. Improvements to Centers of Excellence and Expertise.
TITLE III—IMPROVING CUSTOMS DATA AND TRANSPARENCY
Sec. 301. Requirements for regulations relating to data collection for trade en-
forcement and facilitation.
Sec. 302. Updates to U.S. Customs and Border Protection website and Cus-
toms-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Trade Compliance
Handbook.
Sec. 303. Establishment of deadlines for agency responses to trade community
requests.
Sec. 304. Accessibility of contact information of representatives of U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection and Centers of Excellence and Ex-
pertise.
TITLE I—ONE UNITED STATES 1
GOVERNMENT AT THE BORDER 2
SEC. 101. BORDER INTERAGENCY EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. 3
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established an inter-4
agency working group, to be known as the Border Inter-5
agency Executive Council (in this section referred to as 6
the ‘‘Council’’), to serve as an interagency forum to facili-7
tate the development of policies and processes to enhance 8
coordination across customs, transport security, health 9
and safety, sanitary, conservation, trade, and 10
phytosanitary agencies with border management authori-11
ties— 12
(1) to measurably improve supply chain proc-13
esses and the identification of illicit shipments; and 14
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(2) to facilitate and expedite the flow of legiti-1
mate trade. 2
(b) O
VERSIGHT.—The Secretary of Homeland Secu-3
rity shall oversee the Council. 4
(c) C
HAIRPERSON; VICECHAIRPERSON.— 5
(1) C
HAIRPERSON.—The Commissioner of U.S. 6
Customs and Border Protection or a senior-level des-7
ignee from U.S. Customs and Border Protection 8
shall serve as the chairperson of the Council. 9
(2) V
ICE CHAIRPERSON.—There shall be a vice 10
chairperson of the Council, who shall be selected 11
every 2 years from among the members of the Coun-12
cil by a process determined by the members. 13
(d) M
EMBERSHIP.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to the chair-15
person and vice chairperson, the Council shall in-16
clude designated senior-level representatives who are 17
full-time or permanent part-time employees of Fed-18
eral agencies that provide approval before merchan-19
dise can be imported into or exported from the 20
United States, or that otherwise have the authority 21
to establish or enforce requirements relating to the 22
importation or exportation of merchandise, including 23
the following: 24
(A) The Department of State. 25
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(B) The Department of the Treasury. 1
(C) The Department of Defense. 2
(D) The Department of the Interior. 3
(E) The Department of Agriculture. 4
(F) The Department of Commerce. 5
(G) The Department of Health and 6
Human Services. 7
(H) The Department of Transportation. 8
(I) The Department of Homeland Security. 9
(J) The Environmental Protection Agency. 10
(K) Such other Federal agencies, including 11
independent regulatory and quasi-judicial agen-12
cies and commissions, as the chairperson and 13
vice chairperson consider appropriate. 14
(2) R
EPRESENTATIVES OF EXECUTIVE OFFICE 15
OF PRESIDENT.—The Council may also include ap-16
propriate representatives of the Executive Office of 17
the President. 18
(3) W
AIVER OF PARTICIPATION .—The Sec-19
retary of Homeland Security may waive the partici-20
pation, in whole or in part, of representatives of any 21
agency specified in paragraph (1) in the Council if 22
the Secretary considers it appropriate. 23
(e) F
UNCTIONS OFCOUNCIL.—The Council shall— 24
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(1) facilitate the development of common risk 1
management principles and methods to inform agen-2
cy operations associated with the review and release 3
of cargo at the border and to support compliance 4
with applicable law; 5
(2) facilitate the development of policies and 6
processes to coordinate, improve, and accelerate 7
agency review of electronic trade-related documenta-8
tion or information transmitted, or otherwise made 9
available, through relevant systems and provide co-10
ordinated and streamlined responses back to users 11
to facilitate trade and support compliance with ap-12
plicable law and international agreements; 13
(3) identify opportunities to use documentation 14
or information relating to the importation of mer-15
chandise, including documentation or information 16
provided prior to the arrival of merchandise into the 17
customs territory of the United States or the filing 18
of an entry of merchandise with U.S. Customs and 19
Border Protection, to facilitate priority processing 20
and the expedited release of such merchandise from 21
the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 22
and to reduce redundancies in the trade data that 23
each party in a supply chain is required to provide; 24
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(4) identify opportunities to streamline Federal 1
Government systems and reduce costs through the 2
elimination of redundant capabilities and through 3
enhanced utilization of the capabilities of the Auto-4
mated Commercial Environment, or any successor 5
system, as a means of improving supply chain man-6
agement processes; 7
(5) identify opportunities to enhance whole-of- 8
Government trade processing capabilities, including 9
capabilities relating to processing cargo manifests, 10
collection of advance import and export data, uni-11
form cargo admissibility and release processes, entry 12
summaries, and cargo financial data, in the Auto-13
mated Commercial Environment, or any successor 14
system, that conform with the criteria for the admis-15
sibility of merchandise of all agencies represented on 16
the Council; 17
(6) enhance uniformity, consistency, and trans-18
parency, by facilitating the development, to the ex-19
tent practicable and consistent with applicable law, 20
of a standard nomenclature, including definitions of 21
relevant terms, across and within the Federal agen-22
cies represented on the Council for— 23
(A) any party in the supply chain; and 24
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(B) any event related to the importation or 1
exportation of merchandise or any customs pro-2
gram; 3
(7) engage with and consider input from the 4
trade community and other relevant stakeholders re-5
garding opportunities to improve supply chain proc-6
esses and the processing of imported and exported 7
merchandise, with the goal of promoting economic 8
competitiveness through enhanced trade facilitation 9
and enforcement; 10
(8) encourage other countries to develop similar 11
trade processing capabilities, including single window 12
systems, to facilitate the sharing of relevant trade 13
data, as appropriate, across governmental systems 14
and with trading partners; and 15
(9) assess opportunities to facilitate electronic 16
payment of duties, taxes, fees, and charges imposed 17
under Federal law upon entry of merchandise. 18
(f) R
EPORT.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 20
after the date of the enactment of this Act, and not 21
later than December 31 of every other year there-22
after, the Council shall make available to the public 23
a report that describes the progress that the Council 24
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has made toward carrying out the functions de-1
scribed under subsection (e). 2
(2) P
UBLIC COMMENT.—The Council shall pro-3
vide an opportunity for public comment on the re-4
port required by paragraph (1). 5
(g) C
ONTINUATION OF MEMBERS.—An individual 6
serving as a member of the Border Interagency Executive 7
Council established by Executive Order 13659 (19 U.S.C. 8
1411 note; relating to streamlining the export/import 9
process for America’s businesses) on the day before the 10
date of the enactment of this Act may continue to serve 11
as a member of the Council established by subsection (a). 12
SEC. 102. ESTABLISHMENT OF SINGLE WINDOW IMPORT 13
AND EXPORT CARGO PROCESSING RELEASE 14
SYSTEM. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—In order to advance the national 16
economic security, trade enforcement, and trade facilita-17
tion missions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and 18
partner government agencies of U.S. Customs and Border 19
Protection, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall en-20
sure that a scalable, uniform automated platform provides 21
a system for the processing and release of cargo being im-22
ported into and exported from the United States. 23
(b) E
LEMENTS.—The system required by subsection 24
(a) shall include the following elements: 25
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(1) Incorporation of whole-of-Government trade 1
processing capabilities, including capabilities relating 2
to processing cargo manifests, collection of advance 3
import and export data, uniform cargo admissibility 4
and release processes, entry summaries, and cargo 5
financial data, in the Automated Commercial Envi-6
ronment, or any successor system, to conform with 7
the admissibility criteria of— 8
(A) the Automated Commercial Environ-9
ment, or any successor system; and 10
(B) all agencies— 11
(i) participating in the International 12
Trade Data System established under sec-13
tion 411(d) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 14
U.S.C. 1411(d)); and 15
(ii) represented on the Border Inter-16
agency Executive Council, established in 17
section 101. 18
(2) Continued collaboration with the head of 19
each agency participating in the International Trade 20
Data System to make efforts to ensure that— 21
(A) if data required by a partner govern-22
ment agency is already available in the Auto-23
mated Commercial Environment, or any suc-24
cessor system, as a result of a requirement of 25
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection or another 1
agency, the system will populate that data for 2
the purpose of reporting the data to the partner 3
government agency and the data will not need 4
to be reported again through a separate submis-5
sion, unless U.S. Customs and Border Protec-6
tion or the partner government agency deter-7
mines an additional submission is necessary to 8
confirm the accuracy of data received from 2 or 9
more sources; 10
(B) the Automated Commercial Environ-11
ment, or a successor system, provides a partner 12
government agency with any data that is need-13
ed to facilitate the coordination and efficient 14
execution of inspections conducted by that part-15
ner government agency; 16
(C) a partner government agency inter-17
ested in obtaining import and export data and 18
conducting or directing its own inspections is 19
able to do so through the manifest and entry 20
functionality of the Automated Commercial En-21
vironment, or a successor system, and in real 22
time when entries and manifests are submitted, 23
rather than as a redelivery process when cargo 24
may have already been delivered; and 25
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(D) a partner government agency inter-1
ested in obtaining clearance data clearly indi-2
cates all headings and subheadings of the Har-3
monized Tariff Schedule of the United States 4
that are subject to its jurisdiction, such that 5
the agency is identified when any such heading 6
or subheading of the Harmonized Tariff Sched-7
ule is submitted into the Automated Commer-8
cial Environment or a successor system. 9
(3) Any other feature determined by the Com-10
missioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to 11
be necessary to substantially advance the national 12
economic security, trade enforcement, and trade fa-13
cilitation missions of U.S. Customs and Border Pro-14
tection and partner government agencies. 15
(c) A
SSESSMENT.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later 180 days after the 17
date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner 18
of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall com-19
plete an assessment of whether a technology solution 20
that is capable of delivering the system required by 21
subsection (a) is commercially available. 22
(2) R
EPORT REQUIRED.—If the Commissioner 23
decides not to acquire a commercially available tech-24
nology to satisfy the system requirement of sub-25
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section (a), the Commissioner shall submit to Con-1
gress a report that includes a description of— 2
(A) if applicable, the determination that— 3
(i) developing the system required by 4
subsection (a) is more cost effective than 5
acquiring such system from a commercial 6
source; and 7
(ii) a system developed by U.S. Cus-8
toms and Border Protection can more ade-9
quately address the needs of partner gov-10
ernment agencies and the trade community 11
than a system acquired from a commercial 12
source; and 13
(B) the manner by which the Commis-14
sioner will provide the system required by sub-15
section (a) within the timeline and meeting the 16
requirements set forth in subsection (d). 17
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION OF THE SYSTEM.— 18
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 19
the date on which amounts appropriated pursuant to 20
the authorization of appropriations under section 21
104 are first made available to U.S. Customs and 22
Border Protection, the Commissioner shall imple-23
ment the system required by subsection (a). 24
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(2) REQUIREMENTS.—In implementing the sys-1
tem required by subsection (a), the Commissioner 2
shall— 3
(A) collaborate with the Trade Support 4
Network and other members of the trade com-5
munity as the Commissioner considers appro-6
priate; 7
(B) ensure that the system provides the 8
same or greater functionality as any system 9
being replaced by the system required by sub-10
section (a), to include functionality with respect 11
to the ability of partner government agencies 12
and the trade community to conduct ordinary 13
business; 14
(C) ensure that the system provides the 15
features envisioned in the 21st Century Cus-16
toms Framework of U.S. Customs and Border 17
Protection; and 18
(D) if unable to timely provide a feature of 19
the system required by this section, consult 20
with the Trade Support Network and other 21
members of the trade community, as the Com-22
missioner considers appropriate, to provide a 23
feature of equal importance. 24
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(3) EXEMPTION FROM THE FEDERAL ADVISORY 1
COMMITTEE ACT.—Chapter 10 of title 5, United 2
States Code, shall not apply to this section or to 3
other efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection 4
to collaborate with members of the trade community 5
with respect to the development of the system re-6
quired by subsection (a). 7
(e) M
ODIFICATIONSTOENSUREOPERATION OF 8
I
NTERNATIONAL TRADE DATASYSTEM.—Section 9
411(d)(4)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 10
1411(d)(4)(A)) is amended— 11
(1) in the matter preceding clause (i), by strik-12
ing ‘‘and the Interagency Steering Committee’’ and 13
inserting ‘‘, the Interagency Steering Committee, 14
and the Border Interagency Executive Council (es-15
tablished by section 101 of the Customs Facilitation 16
Act of 2025), as appropriate, and in consultation 17
with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory 18
Committee, Trade Support Network, and other 19
members of the trade community as the Secretary 20
considers necessary,’’; 21
(2) in clause (i), by striking the semicolon and 22
inserting ‘‘; and’’; 23
(3) in clause (ii), by striking the semicolon and 24
inserting a period; and 25
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(4) by striking clauses (iii) and (iv). 1
SEC. 103. CONTINUED MODERNIZATION OF THE AUTO-2
MATED COMMERCIAL ENVIRONMENT. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—In order to advance the national 4
economic security, trade enforcement, and trade facilita-5
tion missions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and 6
partner government agencies of U.S. Customs and Border 7
Protection, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall pro-8
vide for the continuous modernization of the Automated 9
Commercial Environment or a successor system. 10
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 11
(1) D
EVELOPMENT PRIORITIES .—The Commis-12
sioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in 13
consultation with the Commercial Customs Oper-14
ations Advisory Committee (established under sec-15
tion 109 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade En-16
forcement Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4316)), the Trade 17
Support Network, and any other member of the 18
trade community the Commissioner considers appro-19
priate, shall determine the development priorities for 20
the Automated Commercial Environment, or a suc-21
cessor system. 22
(2) C
OLLABORATION WITH PARTNER GOVERN -23
MENT AGENCIES AND INDUSTRY .— 24
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(A) IN GENERAL.—The Commissioner of 1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall col-2
laborate with partner government agencies, the 3
Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Com-4
mittee, the Trade Support Network, and any 5
other member of the trade community the Com-6
missioner considers appropriate, to ensure that 7
any enhancement to the Automated Commercial 8
Environment, or a successor system, is effec-9
tively delivered to Federal agencies and to the 10
trade community. 11
(B) M
EETINGS.— 12
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 90 13
days after the date of the enactment of 14
this Act, and as frequently as the Commis-15
sioner considers appropriate thereafter, but 16
not less frequently than every 30 days, the 17
Commissioner shall convene meetings to 18
solicit feedback on enhancements to the 19
Automated Commercial Environment, or a 20
successor system. 21
(ii) A
TTENDEES.—For each meeting 22
convened under clause (i), the Commis-23
sioner shall invite— 24
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(I) any representative from a 1
partner government agency or mem-2
ber of the trade community who has a 3
stake in the system feature being dis-4
cussed at the meeting; 5
(II) any contractor or technical 6
expert that the Commissioner con-7
siders appropriate; and 8
(III) any other stakeholder the 9
Commissioner considers appropriate. 10
(iii) T
ASKS.—For each meeting con-11
vened under clause (i), the Commissioner 12
shall— 13
(I) solicit feedback on any en-14
hancement to the Automated Com-15
mercial Environment, or a successor 16
system, that is planned, in develop-17
ment, or newly implemented and is 18
addressed at the meeting; 19
(II) conduct user testing or re-20
search with respect to any enhance-21
ment to the Automated Commercial 22
Environment that is planned, in devel-23
opment, or newly implemented; 24
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(III) maintain a summary of the 1
feedback received with respect to each 2
such enhancement; and 3
(IV) incorporate, to the extent 4
practicable and as aligned with the 5
development priorities determined 6
under paragraph (1), the results of 7
any testing or research conducted 8
under subclause (II) into the develop-9
ment of any such enhancement. 10
(3) M
ANAGEMENT OF COMMUNICATION .—The 11
Commissioner shall establish, through the use of a 12
ticketing system or such other means as the Com-13
missioner considers appropriate, a mechanism to 14
manage communication relating to the Automated 15
Commercial Environment, or a successor system, 16
under which users of the Automated Commercial 17
Environment, or such successor system, may report 18
feedback, including with respect to bugs or any other 19
issue, and the appropriate contractor or agency may 20
review and respond to such feedback. 21
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 22
of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 23
Commissioner shall submit to Congress and make avail-24
able to the public a report that describes the development 25
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progress of the Automated Commercial Environment, or 1
any successor system. 2
SEC. 104. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR UNI-3
FORM SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING AND RE-4
LEASE OF CARGO. 5
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-6
retary of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2026, and 7
each fiscal year thereafter, such sums as may be necessary 8
to carry out improvements in a scalable, uniform auto-9
mated platform that provides a system for the processing 10
and release of cargo being imported into and exported 11
from the United States, including improvements to and 12
integration of the Automated Commercial Environment, 13
or any successor system, as described in section 102. 14
TITLE II—MODERNIZING 15
CUSTOMS PROCESSES 16
SEC. 201. SIMPLIFICATION OF DRAWBACK PROCEDURES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 313 of the Tariff Act of 18
1930 (19 U.S.C. 1313) is amended by inserting after sub-19
section (s) the following: 20
‘‘(t) S
IMPLIFICATION OF DRAWBACK PROCE-21
DURES.— 22
‘‘(1) A
CCELERATED PAYMENT .— 23
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A person that meets 24
the requirements of paragraph (3) and files a 25
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claim for drawback under this section shall be 1
paid all estimated duties, taxes, and fees cov-2
ered by the claim while the liquidation of the 3
claim is pending. 4
‘‘(B) E
STIMATED PAYMENT EXCEEDS LIQ -5
UIDATED AMOUNT.—If the amount of estimated 6
duties, taxes, and fees paid by U.S. Customs 7
and Border Protection under subparagraph (A) 8
for a drawback claim exceeds an amount that 9
is $20 more than the final liquidated amount 10
for that claim, the person that filed the claim 11
shall refund to U.S. Customs and Border Pro-12
tection the amount by which the amount of esti-13
mated duties, taxes, and fees paid by U.S. Cus-14
toms and Border Protection exceeds the final 15
liquidated amount. 16
‘‘(C) L
IQUIDATED AMOUNT EXCEEDS ESTI -17
MATED PAYMENT .—If the final liquidated 18
amount for a drawback claim exceeds an 19
amount that is $20 more than the amount of 20
estimated duties, taxes, and fees paid by U.S. 21
Customs and Border Protection under subpara-22
graph (A) for the claim, U.S. Customs and 23
Border Protection shall provide to the person 24
that filed the claim an additional refund in the 25
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amount by which the final liquidated amount 1
exceeds the amount of estimated duties, taxes, 2
and fees paid by U.S. Customs and Border Pro-3
tection. 4
‘‘(2) P
RIOR NOTICE OF EXPORT NOT RE -5
QUIRED.—A person that meets the requirements of 6
paragraph (3) shall not be required to provide notice 7
to U.S. Customs and Border Protection of an export 8
of merchandise to be used in a claim for drawback 9
under this section before exporting the merchandise. 10
‘‘(3) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR CLAIMANTS .—A per-11
son meets the requirements of this paragraph if the 12
person has completed the following: 13
‘‘(A) Submitted to U.S. Customs and Bor-14
der Protection information and supporting doc-15
umentation kept by the person in the normal 16
course of business that evidences the ability of 17
the person to file for and claim drawback under 18
this section, which submission shall— 19
‘‘(i) be deemed complete when sub-20
mitted to U.S. Customs and Border Pro-21
tection by the person; and 22
‘‘(ii) apply to all claims for drawback 23
filed by the person under this section after 24
the completion of the submission. 25
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‘‘(B) Obtained a properly executed bond 1
securing, pending liquidation of a drawback 2
claim, repayment of 100 percent of the esti-3
mated duties, taxes, and fees covered by the 4
claim. 5
‘‘(4) E
LECTRONIC FILINGS FOR DRAWBACK 6
CLAIMS.—A person making a claim for drawback 7
under this section shall be allowed to file an amend-8
ment to, or perfection of, a drawback claim through 9
electronic means.’’. 10
(b) P
RIORAPPROVALNOTREQUIRED FORSUBSTI-11
TUTIONDRAWBACK.—Section 313(b) of the Tariff Act of 12
1930 (19 U.S.C. 1313(b)) is amended by adding at the 13
end the following: 14
‘‘(5) A
DVANCE APPROVAL OF CLAIMS NOT RE -15
QUIRED.—A person filing a claim for drawback 16
under paragraph (1) shall not be required to obtain 17
any ruling or approval authorizing drawback under 18
that paragraph from the U.S. Customs and Border 19
Protection before filing the claim, but shall exercise 20
reasonable care in determining whether to obtain 21
such a ruling in advance of the filing.’’. 22
(c) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after 23
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner 24
of U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall prescribe 25
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regulations specifying the information required to be in-1
cluded in submissions made under subsection (t) of section 2
313 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as added by subsection (a). 3
SEC. 202. STREAMLINED EXPORT PROCESSES. 4
Section 304 of title 13, United States Code, is 5
amended by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘(d) R
EGULATIONSRELATING TOADVANCEINFOR-7
MATION.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Com-9
merce shall prescribe regulations to account for ad-10
vance documentation or information and reports de-11
scribed in subsection (a) made available with respect 12
to cargo before the exportation or transportation of 13
the cargo. 14
‘‘(2) C
ONSIDERATION OF TIMELINES FOR SUB -15
MISSION.—In prescribing regulations under para-16
graph (1), the Secretary shall— 17
‘‘(A) consider how the different business 18
models of persons submitting advance docu-19
mentation or information under subsection (a) 20
impact the availability of the documentation or 21
information; and 22
‘‘(B) adjust the timelines required for the 23
submission of that documentation or informa-24
tion as appropriate. 25
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‘‘(3) AVOIDANCE OF REDUNDANCY .—If infor-1
mation relating to the exportation or transportation 2
of cargo provided under this section or section 431 3
of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1431) is redun-4
dant with information required to be provided under 5
any other provision of law, the Secretary shall, pur-6
suant to the regulations prescribed under paragraph 7
(1), work jointly with the Commissioner of U.S. 8
Customs and Border Protection to ensure that the 9
provision of the information under this section or 10
such section 431 satisfies the requirement to provide 11
the information under such other provision of law, to 12
the extent practicable.’’. 13
SEC. 203. TREATMENT OF CLERICAL ERRORS IN SUBMIS-14
SION OF EXPORT DATA. 15
Section 305(b) of title 13, United States Code, is 16
amended— 17
(1) by striking ‘‘The Secretary’’ and inserting 18
the following: 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary’’; and 20
(2) by adding at the end the following: 21
‘‘(2) T
REATMENT OF CLERICAL ERRORS .—For 22
purposes of paragraph (1), clerical errors or mis-23
takes of fact are not violations unless they are part 24
of a pattern of violative conduct. The mere noninten-25
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tional repetition by an electronic system of an initial 1
clerical error does not constitute a pattern of viola-2
tive conduct.’’. 3
SEC. 204. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT 4
ON FEE SCHEDULE OF U.S. CUSTOMS AND 5
BORDER PROTECTION. 6
Not later than one year after the date of the enact-7
ment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 8
States shall submit to Congress a report on the fee sched-9
ule of U.S. Customs and Border Protection that in-10
cludes— 11
(1) an assessment of— 12
(A) how that schedule might be restruc-13
tured; and 14
(B) ways— 15
(i) to reduce costs for the entities in 16
the trade community that are the most 17
compliant with the customs and trade laws 18
of the United States (as defined in section 19
2 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade En-20
forcement Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4301)); 21
and 22
(ii) to ensure that all entities that 23
benefit from customs services provided by 24
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection pay 1
for those services; and 2
(2) recommendations for Congress. 3
SEC. 205. IMPROVEMENTS TO CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE 4
AND EXPERTISE. 5
Section 110(a) of the Trade Facilitation and Trade 6
Enforcement Act of 2015 (19 U.S.C. 4317(a)) is amend-7
ed— 8
(1) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 9
inserting a semicolon; 10
(2) in paragraph (9), by striking the period and 11
inserting a semicolon; and 12
(3) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(10) develop procedures, informed compliance 14
publications, or other guidance with respect to the 15
entry of merchandise in compliance with the law; 16
and 17
‘‘(11) provide guidance to importers on the 18
post-entry and clearance procedures for imported 19
merchandise impacted by admissibility issues includ-20
ing alleged violations of section 307 of the Trade 21
Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1307).’’. 22
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TITLE III—IMPROVING CUSTOMS 1
DATA AND TRANSPARENCY 2
SEC. 301. REQUIREMENTS FOR REGULATIONS RELATING 3
TO DATA COLLECTION FOR TRADE ENFORCE-4
MENT AND FACILITATION. 5
(a) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR NEWREGULATIONS.—In 6
developing and imposing regulations requiring the collec-7
tion of additional information for the purposes of trade 8
enforcement and facilitation, each official described in 9
subsection (b) shall adhere to the following: 10
(1) The official shall solicit comments from and 11
consult with a broad range of parties likely to be af-12
fected by the regulations, including importers, ex-13
porters, carriers, customs brokers, platforms, and 14
freight forwarders, and other interested parties. 15
(2) In general, the requirement to provide par-16
ticular information shall be imposed on parties with 17
direct knowledge of that information, as appropriate. 18
Where requiring information from a party with di-19
rect knowledge of that information is not prac-20
ticable, the regulations shall take into account how, 21
under ordinary and reasonable commercial practices, 22
information is acquired by a party on which the re-23
quirement is imposed, and whether and how such 24
party is reasonably able to verify the information. 25
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Where information is not reasonably verifiable by a 1
party on which a requirement is imposed, the regula-2
tions shall permit that party to transmit information 3
on the basis of what the party reasonably believes to 4
be true based on commercially reasonable practices. 5
(3) The official shall take into account the ex-6
istence of competitive relationships among the par-7
ties on which requirements to provide particular in-8
formation are imposed. 9
(4) Where the regulations impose requirements 10
on carriers of cargo, the regulations shall take into 11
account differences among different modes of trans-12
portation, including differences in commercial prac-13
tices, operational characteristics, and technological 14
capacity to collect and transmit information elec-15
tronically. 16
(5) The regulations shall take into account the 17
extent to which the technology necessary for parties 18
to transmit and U.S. Customs and Border Protec-19
tion to receive and analyze data in a timely fashion 20
is available. To the extent the official determines 21
that the necessary technology will not be widely 22
available to particular modes of transportation or 23
other affected parties until after promulgation of the 24
regulations, the regulations shall— 25
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(A) provide interim requirements appro-1
priate for the technology that is available at the 2
time of promulgation; or 3
(B) other accommodations. 4
(6) In determining the timing for transmittal of 5
any information, the official shall balance likely im-6
pact on flow of commerce with impact on trade en-7
forcement. With respect to requirements that may be 8
imposed on carriers of cargo, the timing for trans-9
mittal of information shall take into account dif-10
ferences among different modes of transportation, as 11
described in paragraph (4). 12
(7) Where practicable, the regulations shall 13
avoid imposing requirements that are redundant 14
with one another or that are redundant with require-15
ments in other provisions of law. 16
(8) The official shall determine whether it is 17
appropriate to provide transition periods between 18
promulgation of the regulations and the effective 19
date of the regulations and shall prescribe such tran-20
sition periods in the regulations, as appropriate, tak-21
ing into account different business models. 22
(9) The official shall, in collaboration with the 23
Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protec-24
tion and the Postmaster General, prescribe regula-25
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tions requiring the United States Postal Service to 1
transmit the information described in this subsection 2
to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border 3
Protection for international mail shipments by the 4
Postal Service (including shipments to the Postal 5
Service from foreign postal operators that are trans-6
ported by private carrier). 7
(b) O
FFICIALSDESCRIBED.—The officials described 8
in this subsection are— 9
(1) the Secretary of the Treasury; 10
(2) the Secretary of Homeland Security; and 11
(3) the head of each agency represented on the 12
Border Interagency Executive Council established by 13
section 101. 14
SEC. 302. UPDATES TO U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PRO-15
TECTION WEBSITE AND CUSTOMS-TRADE 16
PARTNERSHIP AGAINST TERRORISM TRADE 17
COMPLIANCE HANDBOOK. 18
(a) N
OTIFICATION OFCHANGES.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Commissioner of U.S. 20
Customs and Border Protection shall consult with 21
and notify members of the trade community if con-22
tent related to minimum security criteria is added to 23
or removed from the publicly accessible website of 24
U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the Trade 25
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Compliance Handbook for the Customs-Trade Part-1
nership Against Terrorism. 2
(2) C
ONTENT OF NOTIFICATIONS .—A notifica-3
tion required by paragraph (1) shall include a sum-4
mary and explanation of the reasons for the addition 5
or removal of the content. 6
(3) M
ODEL.—The Commissioner shall use the 7
process of the United States International Trade 8
Commission for disclosing modifications to the Har-9
monized Tariff Schedule of the United States as a 10
model for the notification required by paragraph (1). 11
(b) A
DDITIONS TO TRADECOMPLIANCEHAND-12
BOOK.—In addition to providing the notification required 13
by subsection (a)(1), the Commissioner shall consult with 14
members of the trade community with respect to any new 15
requirements that may be added to the Trade Compliance 16
Handbook of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against 17
Terrorism. 18
(c) R
EVISIONS TO TRADECOMPLIANCE HAND-19
BOOK.—The Commissioner shall revise the Trade Compli-20
ance Handbook of the Customs-Trade Partnership 21
Against Terrorism to include constructive and detailed 22
context for best practices for mitigating the risk of import-23
ing merchandise produced using forced labor. 24
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(d) CONSULTATIONS WITHFORCEDLABOREN-1
FORCEMENTTASKFORCE.—In revising the Trade Com-2
pliance Handbook of the Customs-Trade Partnership 3
Against Terrorism under this section, the Commissioner 4
shall consult with the Forced Labor Enforcement Task 5
Force to ensure consistent messaging and streamlining of 6
resources. 7
SEC. 303. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEADLINES FOR AGENCY RE-8
SPONSES TO TRADE COMMUNITY REQUESTS. 9
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than one year after the 10
date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner of 11
U.S. Customs and Border Protection— 12
(1) shall review any regulations governing dead-13
lines for rulings and decisions of U.S. Customs and 14
Border Protection, including with respect to peti-15
tions, protests, and requests for advice, and customs 16
rulings; and 17
(2) may, in consultation with members of the 18
Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Com-19
mittee, revise such regulations. 20
(b) U
PDATES TOEXISTINGDEADLINES.—In a case 21
in which a deadline is already established for a response 22
described in subsection (a), the Commissioner shall— 23
(1) review the deadline; and 24
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(2) if appropriate, revise the deadline to be 1
more expeditious. 2
(c) R
EPORTREQUIRED.—Not later than one year 3
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-4
troller General of the United States shall submit to Con-5
gress and make available to the public a report on rulings 6
and decisions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection that 7
includes— 8
(1) an assessment of— 9
(A) the average annual number of rulings 10
and decisions described in subsection (a) con-11
sidered by U.S. Customs and Border Protec-12
tion, including such rulings and decisions that 13
are not subject to a statutory or regulatory 14
deadline; 15
(B) the average response time of U.S. Cus-16
toms and Border Protection to petitions, pro-17
tests, and requests for advice, including the 18
total amount of responses made before and 19
after the applicable statutory or regulatory 20
deadline; 21
(C) the average time for issuance of cus-22
toms rulings by U.S. Customs and Border Pro-23
tection, including the total amount of rulings 24
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issued before and after the applicable statutory 1
or regulatory deadline; 2
(D) for deadlines not met, the average 3
time it took for U.S. Customs and Border Pro-4
tection to respond or issue a ruling; 5
(E) reasons provided by U.S. Customs and 6
Border Protection explaining why the deadlines 7
were not met; and 8
(F) in the case of rulings and decisions not 9
subject to a statutory or regulatory deadline, 10
reasons for the length of time for issuing such 11
rulings and making such decisions; 12
(2) a description of the petition and protest 13
process, including timelines that apply under stat-14
utes or regulations as of the date of the report; and 15
(3) recommendations for Congress on improving 16
the time taken by U.S. Customs and Border Protec-17
tion to respond to petitions, protests, and requests 18
for advice and to issue rulings. 19
SEC. 304. ACCESSIBILITY OF CONTACT INFORMATION OF 20
REPRESENTATIVES OF U.S. CUSTOMS AND 21
BORDER PROTECTION AND CENTERS OF EX-22
CELLENCE AND EXPERTISE. 23
The Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Pro-24
tection shall develop a system to assist members of the 25
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trade community in quickly and easily identifying up-to- 1
date contact information for— 2
(1) personnel within the headquarters of U.S. 3
Customs and Border Protection that interact with 4
members of the trade community; 5
(2) personnel of U.S. Customs and Border Pro-6
tection and partner government agencies at ports of 7
entry that interact with members of the trade com-8
munity; and 9
(3) personnel of the Centers of Excellence and 10
Expertise established under section 110 of the Trade 11
Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (19 12
U.S.C. 4317) that interact with members of the 13
trade community. 14
Æ
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