Budget deal hits trade-tracking program as key technologies are slated to come online
The budget battle took a $6 million chunk of funding out of a cargo screening program and delayed the purchase of mobile radios for Border Patrol agents, Customs and Border Protection officials said.
The compromise spending bill to fund government operations through September, which President Obama was set to sign Friday, averted a government shutdown by cutting about $38.5 billion from a number of programs, including a trade-tracking effort known as the Automated Commercial Environment. The agency last week published an updated schedule for development of the $4.5 billion system, with many features slated to come online this spring and summer. CBP officials said it is unclear how the program will be affected.
The online system, which services CBP personnel, other agency staff, importers, as well as truck, ocean and rail carriers, is centralizing information about cargo shipments so the government can more quickly spot illicit contents and ease the passage of legitimate merchandise. It began operating in April 2009.
The program's next step, scheduled for later this spring, would allow importers to electronically correct information about products they already have submitted to CBP for appraisement, instead of requiring them to file paper changes.
Another feature expected to launch in August would provide partner agencies, including the Food Safety and Inspection Service and Consumer Product Safety Commission, with cargo facts presently unavailable to them.
Also, CBP had planned to start sharing digital images of documentation from international traders with other agencies by August.
If development funds go under the knife, then the cuts could potentially delay the deployment of one or more of these capabilities, said Randolph C. Hite, former director of IT architecture and systems issues at the Government Accountability Office. Hite last reported on border IT matters in October 2010 before opening a private consulting firm earlier this year.
"ACE is a multibillion-dollar program, so $6 million is potentially insignificant in relative terms," he said. "Another unknown is which increment of capabilities will take the hit."
Ray Bjorklund, chief knowledge officer at market research firm FedSources, agreed the damage to the mature program likely will not be major. The budget agreement that Congress cleared on Thursday sets aside $148 million for ACE during the next five and a half months. In the fiscal 2010 budget, the Obama administration requested $280 million for the entire fiscal calendar, but has asked for much less, $170 million, for fiscal 2012.
"Congress is trimming the program back some more, and [the Homeland Security Department] will have to rely on some existing unobligated funding in the bank as well as this new appropriation," Bjorklund said.
Separately, fears of a government shutdown last week scuttled plans for vendors to participate in a technology day when they could share the latest product information about over-the-air tactical communications, or portable land-based radio systems that agents use to guard areas where commercial mobile devices do not get service. CBP is in the process of upgrading its systems, many of which were bought in the 1970s and 1980s.
"DHS postponed this event due to the pending lapse in appropriations and a potential government shutdown," a CBP spokesperson said in a statement. "In addition, we wanted to provide industry with sufficient notice to make appropriate arrangements." The department plans to reschedule the forum, the spokesperson added.