WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) today released a discussion draft of their Customs Facilitation Act of 2024 to modernize U.S. customs laws and streamline the movement of goods and services across our borders. The discussion draft comes after Cassidy released a framework of the proposal last month and sent a request for information in June last year.
“A trade system that’s simple and workable is a better trade system,” said Dr. Cassidy. “There must be better management of imports and exports. This can protect consumers and make it easier for American businesses to move goods around the world.”
“Hundreds of Nevada businesses and workers rely on trade to succeed, and that’s why I’m working to modernize our outdated custom laws,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “This draft legislation would help Nevada businesses by creating a one-stop shop for customs data entry and promoting exports of American goods. I will keep working across the aisle to cut through red tape, boost our economy, and deliver for Nevada businesses and families.”
Right now, the entry of goods across our borders is fragmented, costly, slow, and requires redundant data entries across the U.S. government. For instance, importing something as simple as a can of wet pet food is an arduous and redundant task requiring 54 data elements to be submitted to three separate partner government agencies—the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—with 21 redundant data elements and 16 inconsistent definitions of the same data.
The Customs Facilitation Act of 2024 would:
- Create a real One U.S. Government at the Border through a workable one-stop-shop for data entry and decision-making.
- Streamline data requirements by providing parameters to ensure the government is receiving the data it needs without overly burdening the trade industry.
- Simplify the duty drawback process.
- Update the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) webpage, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Trade Compliance Handbook, and the accessibility of Customs representatives to improve information sharing.
- Encourage more timely responses to trade actions and requests from U.S. government agencies.
- Streamline the export process and ensure that clerical errors are not penalized.
- Authorize the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study to examine the duty and fee structure and make appropriate recommendations to Congress.
- Provide enhancements to Centers of Excellence and Expertise.
The deadline to submit feedback is August 30th, 2024. Click here to read the discussion draft bill text and here to read a one-pager.
Background
Last year, Cassidy introduced the Customs Modernization Act to give CBP visibility into international supply chains to resolve data collection constraints, expand the legal use of trade data, increase supply chain accountability, improve enforcement effectiveness, and bolster information sharing among government agencies. Cassidy also introduced the Manifest Modernization Act to improve the transparency of shipments coming into the U.S. by standardizing the data requirements for imports regardless of how the cargo is shipped. The bill aims to give CBP another tool to stop the trafficking of drugs and illegal goods.
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