Customs Reauthorization Bill Picking Up Support

(GovExec.com – Peter Cohn, CongressDaily)

An effort to elevate trade facilitation as a top priority alongside security and enforcement within U.S. customs agencies for the first time since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has a good shot at being enacted in the 111th Congress, stakeholders say.

A customs reauthorization bill introduced late last week by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, could move in committee this fall, sources said. Finance has been working on a bill since 2006, and lobbyists said the staff work and resources devoted to it are unprecedented. […]

The measure would establish Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Homeland Security Department as separate agencies with their budgets. It would also create an office to consolidate trade facilitation duties within CBP as well as a liaison between the agency and the private sector, while requiring consultations with other agencies and industry stakeholders before proposing regulations impacting trade.

The bill would require CBP to identify benefits for voluntary industry participants in programs such as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. “CBP has promised more trade benefits to participating importers, but those benefits have not come to fruition,” said Stephanie Lester, vice president for international trade at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “We welcome Congress’ guidance that more should be done to encourage public-private partnerships.” Read more here.