Text of Senate Amendment 6236

On 2026-06-24, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) delivered a floor speech titled "Text Of Senate Amendment 6236" in the Senate.

Text of Senate Amendment 6236

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S3402-S3403] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 6236. Mr. LANKFORD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of title X, add the following: Subtitle H--Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade Facilitation SEC. 1091. SHORT TITLES. This subtitle may be cited as the ``Border Enforcement, Security, and Trade Facilitation Act of 2025'' or the ``BEST Facilitation Act''. SEC. 1092. OFFICE OF FIELD OPERATIONS IMAGE TECHNICIAN PILOT PROGRAM. (a) In General.--Section 411(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 211(g)) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``(6) Image technician pilot program.-- ``(A) Image technician 1.-- ``(i) In general.--There shall be in the Office of Field Operations, Image Technician 1 positions, which shall be filled in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to appointments in the competitive service) and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. ``(ii) Conditions.--Image Technician 1 positions-- ``(I) may be filled by existing U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees; ``(II) are not law enforcement officer positions; ``(III) may not be filled by independent contractors; and ``(IV) shall be assigned to a regional command center established under subparagraph (F). ``(iii) Duties.--The duties of an Image Technician 1 shall include-- ``(I) reviewing non-intrusive inspection images of conveyances and containers entering or exiting the United States through a land, sea, or air port of entry or international rail crossing; ``(II) assessing whether images of conveyances and containers appear to contain anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons unlawfully seeking to enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, including illicit drugs and terrorist weapons; ``(III) recommending entry release or exit release for any conveyances and containers whenever the images of such items do not include noticeable anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, including illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer responsible for inspecting such conveyance or container; and ``(IV) recommending further inspection of any conveyances and containers whenever the Image Technician reasonably believes that an image of any such item contains anomalies indicating the potential presence of contraband, persons seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who is responsible for inspecting such conveyance or container. ``(B) Image technician 2.-- ``(i) In general.--There shall be in the Office of Field Operations, Image Technician 2 positions, which shall be filled in accordance with the provisions under chapter 33 (relating to appointments in the competitive service) and chapters 51 and 53 (relating to classification and rates of pay) of title 5, United States Code. ``(ii) Conditions.--Image Technician 2 positions-- ``(I) may be filled by existing U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees; ``(II) are not law enforcement officer positions; ``(III) may not be filled by independent contractors; and ``(IV) shall be assigned to a regional command center established under subparagraph (F). ``(iii) Duties.--The duties of an Image Technician 2 shall include-- ``(I) carrying out all of the duties described in subclauses (I) through (IV) of subparagraph (A)(ii); ``(II) receiving intelligence from the National Targeting Center regarding tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons; and ``(III) reporting new information to the National Targeting Center regarding tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons. ``(C) Supervisory u.s. customs and border protection officers.-- ``(i) Supervision.--All image technicians shall be supervised by a Supervisory U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer. ``(ii) Discretion and decision-making authority.--The appropriate Supervisory U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer, while working with image technicians, shall retain the discretion and final decision-making authority-- ``(I) to release conveyances or cargo for entry; or ``(II) to refer such conveyance or cargo for further inspection. ``(iii) Training.--A Supervisory U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer who supervises image technicians shall receive additional training in accordance with subparagraph (D). ``(D) Training requirements.--All image technicians shall receive annual training and additional ad hoc training, to the extent necessary based on current trends, regarding-- ``(i) respecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties, including the protections against unreasonable searches and seizures afforded by the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as applicable and as interpreted by the Federal courts; ``(ii) analyzing images generated by non-intrusive inspection technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; [[Page S3403]] ``(iii) identifying commodities and merchandise in images generated by non-intrusive inspection technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; ``(iv) identifying contraband, persons who are seeking to unlawfully enter or exit the United States, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons, in images generated by non-intrusive technologies or any successor technologies deployed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection; ``(v) tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons; and ``(vi) any other training that the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection determines to be relevant to the duties described in subparagraphs (A)(iii) or (B)(iii). ``(E) Annual assessment.--All image technicians shall receive annual testing with respect to their-- ``(i) accuracy in image analysis; ``(ii) timeliness in image analysis; and ``(iii) ability to ascertain tactics, techniques, and procedures being used at ports of entry and in the border environment by malign actors to facilitate the unlawful entry or exit of contraband, persons, or illicitly concealed merchandise, such as illicit drugs or terrorist weapons. ``(F) Command centers.--As part of the pilot program established under this paragraph, the Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations shall establish 5 regional command centers at land, rail, air, and sea ports in which image technicians shall review non- intrusive inspection images. ``(G) Rule of construction.--Nothing in this paragraph may be construed to affect the discretion and final decision- making authority given to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers to release conveyances or cargo for entry or exit or to refer such conveyances or cargo for further inspection.''. (b) Effective Date.-- (1) Sunset.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall cease to have effect on the date that is 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act. (2) Transfers authorized.--Upon the termination of the pilot program established by section 411(g)(6) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as added by subsection (a), individuals occupying Image Technician 1 or Image Technician 2 positions in the Office of Field Operations may transfer to comparable positions within U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the Department of Homeland Security. SEC. 1093. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. (a) Semiannual Reports.--Not later than 180 days after the hiring of the first positions described in section 411(g)(6) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, as added by section 1092(a), and every 180 days thereafter, the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in consultation with the Executive Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations, shall submit a report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives that identifies-- (1) the number of Image Technician 1 and Image Technician 2 positions filled during the reporting period; (2) the number of Image Technician 1 and Image Technician 2 positions currently employed by the Office of Field Operations, disaggregated by-- (A) port of entry or field office; (B) image technician position; and (C) command center, as applicable; (3) the daily average number of images scanned by each Image Technician 1 and each Image Technician 2; (4) training methodologies utilized to train image technicians; (5) assessment passage rates of image technicians; (6) the impact of image technicians on interdiction r