Sponsors (22)
The bill aims to speed and modernize border inspections and improve detection by piloting AI-enabled nonintrusive technologies, but it raises significant privacy, cost, workforce, and oversight risks that could affect travelers, taxpayers, and border communities.
Travelers and commercial shippers will face shorter wait times and faster cargo throughput because CBP can pilot higher-performing nonintrusive inspection technologies at land ports.
CBP officers and public safety officials may detect contraband, illegal drugs, weapons, and human smuggling more effectively through pilots that identify higher-performing inspection technologies.
Federal employees at CBP gain a named Innovation Team to coordinate technology testing and adoption, reducing fragmentation and improving project coordination.
People crossing borders and cargo owners face increased surveillance and privacy/civil‑liberties risks because AI-driven sensors and data collection in pilots could be intrusive if not strictly limited.
Taxpayers and CBP may bear substantial costs for deploying, upgrading, and maintaining advanced inspection systems, creating budgetary pressure even if initially fielded as pilots.
Ambiguous language about which 'appropriate congressional committees' receive reports could weaken oversight, transparency, and accountability for the pilots.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Directs DHS/CBP to run land‑port pilot projects testing AI, ML, quantum and other tech to improve nonintrusive inspections and evaluate performance and cost‑effectiveness.
Official title: To establish a pilot program to assess the use of technology to speed up and enhance the cargo inspection process at land ports of entry along the border.
Introduced February 25, 2025 by Clay Higgins · Last progress February 25, 2025
Directs the Department of Homeland Security, through U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Innovation Team and partners, to run pilot projects at land ports of entry to test and evaluate new and enhanced nonintrusive inspection technologies (for example, AI, machine learning, high‑performance computing, and quantum sensing) to improve detection of contraband, illegal drugs, weapons, human smuggling, and other threats. The pilots must collect data on multiple technology types, measure performance against specified criteria (detection accuracy, inspection efficiency, safety, integration, automatic threat recognition, mobility, and other measures), solicit private‑sector input, and prioritize cost‑effective solutions. The bill defines key terms (including AI, nonintrusive inspection technology, CBP Innovation Team, and pilot projects) and requires the program be launched within one year of enactment; some detailed cost‑effectiveness language in the provided text is incomplete.