CONGRESSIONAL BILL ON CBP PRECLEARANCE ADVANCES IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 14, 2015
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 998, the Preclearance Authorization Act, by voice vote. The Act provides specific requirements that must be met and reviewed by Congress before CBP can establish more preclearance and other customs facilities outside of the U.S. Currently, CBP plans to open facilities in nine more countries.
Under the Act, plans for preclearance facilities must be submitted to Congress for approval. Congress is then charged with assessing the potential benefits, costs, security vulnerabilities and impacts on U.S. air carriers and workers.
In addition, the Act requires CBP to measure the average entry processing time at the 25 U.S. airports with the highest volume on a monthly basis. If those processing times are longer than the processing times at preclearance facilities, CBP will be required to submit a remediation plan and implement it in order to reduce such processing times. If CBP does not submit such a plan within the prescribed time frame, CBP will be barred from conducting negotiations with interested countries or opening new preclearance facilities.
CBP recently identified ten foreign airports as possible sites for future preclearance locations: Brussels Airport, Belgium; Punta Cana Airport, Dominican Republic; Narita International Airport, Japan; Amsterdam Airport Schipol, Netherlands; Oslo Airport, Norway; Madrid-Barajas Airport, Spain; Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden; Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Turkey; and London Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport, United Kingdom.
The bill next goes to the Senate for review.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com, 202-659-6665).