U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced today that it has made initial selections for 16 new reimbursable services agreements to promote economic growth in cross-border trade and travel across the country. These public-private partnerships in California, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Texas will allow approved private sector and state and local government entities to reimburse CBP for expanded services to improve processing and inspection times for incoming commercial and cargo traffic.

“CBP is transforming the way we do business to efficiently process the growing number of travelers each year. These partnerships allow us to remain a strong global competitor and destination for businesses and travelers,” said CBP Deputy Commissioner (Acting) Kevin K. McAleenan. “The five partnerships established last year through Section 560 have already proven to be beneficial for CBP, our stakeholders and the traveling public and this expansion will build on this important success.”

Last year, CBP entered into five reimbursable service agreements with the city of El Paso, Texas; the City of Houston Airport System; Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport; Miami- Dade County; and the South Texas Assets Consortium under Section 560 of the Consolidated
and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013. As a result, CBP provided an additional 9,000
CBP officer assignments and opened primary lanes and booths for an additional 24,000 hours at the request of 560 partners, increasing border processing throughput at U.S. air and land ports of entry. Among the three participating airports, the added staffing and supplementary lane openings, in conjunction with Automated Passport Control deployments and other innovative technology efforts, have helped decrease wait times by an average of almost 30 percent while traveler volume has increased about 7 percent over the last year.

Section 559 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 expands this authority to enter into additional agreements to increase CBP’s ability to provide new or enhanced services on a reimbursable basis by creating partnerships with private sector and government entities.

Reimbursable services under Section 559 include customs, agricultural processing, border security services, and immigration inspection-related services at ports of entry. The statute maintains several limitations at CBP-serviced airports, including a maximum of five reimbursable service agreements permitted per year, and reimbursable services being limited to overtime costs only. These agreements will not replace existing services.

The entities tentatively selected for these partnerships are:
•    Los Angeles World Airports
•    San Francisco International Airport
•    Greater Orlando Aviation Authority
•    McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas)
•    Denver International Airport
•    Penn Terminals, Inc. (Philadelphia)
•    Independent Container Line, Ltd. (Philadelphia)
•    Network Shipping Ltd. (Philadelphia)
•    Greenwich Terminals LLC (Philadelphia)
•    Gloucester Terminals LLC (Philadelphia)
•    Turbana Corporation (Philadelphia)
•    Interoceanica Agency, Inc. (Philadelphia)
•    Diamond State Port Corp. (Port of Wilmington, Del.)
•    Port of Houston Authority
•    Broward County, Fla. (Port Everglades)
•    South Texas Assets Consortium (STAC)

The reimbursable services proposals were evaluated and scored based on criteria including: impact on current CBP operations; funding reliability; community concerns; health and safety issues; the ability to receive support from other government agencies as necessary; community and economic benefits; and the feasibility of implementing the proposal in a timely manner.