Sponsors (4)
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Directs the President to designate certain airports as official U.S. ports of entry and ends a specified user fee for airports that meet the bill’s qualifying criteria. The bill sets four eligibility requirements for airports (location, association with a nearby land border crossing or seaport, and conformity with existing Treasury and Customs rules) and relies on existing Treasury guidance and U.S. Customs and Border Protection criteria for implementation.
The President must designate each airport described in subsection (b) as a port of entry pursuant to the Act of August 1, 1914 (38 Stat. 623, chapter 223) and 19 U.S.C. 2.
The President must terminate the application of the user fee requirement under section 236 of the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984 (19 U.S.C. 58b) with respect to each airport designated under subsection (a).
An "airport described" (i.e., eligible for designation) is a primary airport as defined in 49 U.S.C. 47102.
The airport must be located not more than 30 miles from the northern or southern international land border of the United States.
The airport must be associated, through a formal legal instrument (such as a valid contract or governmental ordinance), with a land border crossing or a seaport that is not more than 30 miles from the airport.
Who is affected and how:
Airport sponsors and owners: Directly affected; airports that meet the eligibility criteria may become official ports of entry and will no longer be subject to the specified user fee, which could reduce operating costs or alter local fee structures.
Department of Homeland Security / U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Affected operationally; CBP will use its existing criteria and processes to implement port-of-entry functions at newly designated airports, which could shift workloads, staffing, inspection locations, and resource allocation.
Air carriers and airlines: May see operational and cost implications if more airports become ports of entry (changes to routing, international flight handling, or reduced fees at certain airports); effects will depend on carrier networks and passenger demand.
Airline passengers and travel consumers: Potential indirect benefits from reduced fees at qualifying airports (lower costs passed through to carriers or users) and possibly increased travel options if port-of-entry status enables new international or customs-cleared services.
Local governments, port authorities, and border communities: May experience economic and logistical impacts — potential increased traffic, commerce, and cross-border coordination if airports gain port-of-entry status; also potential loss of fee revenue if local fee structures relied on the user fee being charged.
Treasury and federal revenues: Eliminating the specified user fee for designated airports will reduce fee receipts tied to those airports; the legislation does not specify offsets or alternative funding, so the revenue impact would be administrative (likely limited in scale depending on how many airports qualify).
Overall assessment: The bill is narrowly focused and administrative. It changes designation and fee treatment for a class of airports meeting defined criteria and relies on existing agency rules for implementation. It does not create broad new programs or appropriations in the text provided, but it can have localized operational and revenue effects for airports, CBP, carriers, and nearby communities.
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced February 20, 2025 by Rafael Edward Cruz · Last progress February 20, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate