McAleenan Says de Minimis Functionality Is Coming in ACE

Stakeholders continue to ask for additional and enhanced ACE capabilities, and the agency is working on system enhancements to enable de minimis functionality, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security in his prepared opening statement. Creating de minimis functionality "will provide CBP access to previously unavailable admissibility data for low value shipments, resulting in improved cargo processing and use of enforcement resources," he said.

Most of the questions directed to McAleenan by committee members on April 25 were about immigration control and staffing challenges, but a few questions did touch on trade facilitation. Rep. Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., praised ACE for improving efficiency at the Port of Los Angeles, and McAleenan, in turn, talked about efficiency improvements in handling cargo there. "Our radiation portal monitors, those are now more finely tuned so they don't trigger on so many naturally occurring materials that are backing up trucks," he said.

McAleenan's opening statement also talked about the usefulness of advance electronic data from foreign postal operators and express consignment carriers -- the data helps officers find suspicious packages. Many members of Congress expressed concern about opioid shipments, and McAleenan's statement explained that of the 186 fetanyl shipments stopped so far this fiscal year at John F. Kennedy airport, advance electronic data helped them target 125 of the packages.