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Open Recommendations (23 total)

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should ensure that additional steps are taken, as appropriate, to recover the duties owed by importers as a result of invalid use of Section 232 exclusions, including for liquidated entries beyond CBP's 90-day re-liquidation period. (Recommendation 3)
Open
CBP concurred with GAO's recommendation. In commenting on the report, officials said that CBP's Office of Trade (OT) will issue guidance to the CBP Office of Field Operations (OFO) on the appropriate steps to recover duties owed when an importer make any invalid use of Section 232 exclusions. For liquidated entries beyond CBP's 90-day re-liquidation period, CBP OT said it will evaluate its authority under 19 U.S.C. ? 1592(d), "Penalties for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence; Deprivation of lawful duties, taxes, or fees," to recover such duties, and issue appropriate guidance to OFO to use this authority when an importer exceeded approved quantities of Section 232 exclusions. In January 2024, CBP stated that OT and OFO are working to finalize guidance on recovering duties owed as a result of any type of invalid use, and that this guidance was being reviewed internally. CBP said this guidance includes separate approaches for: (1) duties owed on unliquidated entries; (2) duties owed on entries within the 90-day reliquidation window; (3) entries that are past CBP's reliquidation authority, and; (4) duties owed as a result of an importer exceeding its approved import quantity, using the 19 U.S.C. ? 1592(d) authority. CBP estimated that review of the draft guidance would be complete by March 2024.

Steel and Aluminum Tariffs: Agencies Should Ensure Section 232 Exclusion Requests Are Needed and Duties Are Paid

GAO-23-105148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should ensure that controls are implemented either to prevent importers from exceeding the approved quantities of their Section 232 exclusions or to promptly assess duties owed because of overages before CBP's 90-day re-liquidation period expires. (Recommendation 4)
Open
CBP concurred with GAO's recommendation. In commenting on the report, officials said that CBP OT will issue updated guidance to OFO to ensure that duties are assessed on overages of Section 232 exclusions before CBP's 90- day re-liquidation period expires. In addition, they said CBP OT submitted a request for development of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled, "Automate the Inactivation of Section 232 Product Exclusions," that was entered on April 21, 2023, to the Product Management Committee, which will ensure that there are automated controls in place to prevent importers from exceeding the approved quantities of their Section 232 exclusions. CBP OT's request for development to automate these controls in ACE is the first step to determine the resources needed for this programming. In January 2024, CBP stated that due to funding constraints and competing agency priorities, the request to automate ACE's inactivation of Section 232 exclusions has not yet been funded. Instead, OT and OFO will create guidance on implementing a manual process to limit exclusion use when the exclusion reaches 95 percent of its approved quantity. CBP estimated that this would be complete by March 2024.

Intellectual Property: Agencies Can Improve Efforts to Address Risks Posed by Changing Counterfeits Market

GAO-18-216
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should take steps to evaluate the effectiveness of CBP's IPR enforcement efforts, such as by improving its metrics to track the overall effectiveness of its IPR enforcement efforts, evaluating selected activities to enhance IPR enforcement, and developing a process to assess and share information on port-led initiatives to enhance IPR enforcement (Recommendation 1)
Open
CBP concurred with this recommendation. In March 2023, CBP indicated that it planned to undertake initiatives in fiscal year 2023 that will address enforcement evaluation. These include conducting a risk assessment to evaluate current efforts and identify and document key risks and reviewing and updating key IPR performance indicators. CBP plans to use these initiatives to enhance IPR enforcement. We will continue to follow up on these efforts.

Southwest Border: Additional Actions Needed to Address Cultural and Natural Resource Impacts from Barrier Construction

GAO-23-105443
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should document, jointly with Interior, a strategy to mitigate cultural and natural resource impacts from border barrier construction that defines agency roles and responsibilities for undertaking specific mitigation actions; identifies the costs, associated funding sources, and time frames necessary to implement them; and specifies when agencies are to consult with Tribes. (Recommendation 1)
Open
CBP agreed with this recommendation. We will update the status of the recommendation when we received additional information from the agency.

Customs and Border Protection: Improved Planning Needed to Strengthen Trade Enforcement

GAO-17-618
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection To strengthen CBP's trade enforcement efforts, the Commissioner of CBP should direct the Office of Trade and the Office of Field Operations to develop a long-term hiring plan that articulates how CBP will reach its staffing targets for trade positions set in the Homeland Security Act and the agency's resource optimization model.
Open
As of May 2023, CBP officials stated that both the Office of Trade (OT) and Office of Field Operations (OFO) have collaborated with the CBP Hiring Center on development of formal hiring plans to meet the targets for the trade enforcement positions laid out in the Homeland Security Act of 2020. CBP reported that an OFO Import Specialist Hiring Plan was implemented, and a hiring schedule was formulated for FY2022 to address vacancies. OT reported that, upon receipt of additional funding, it will be able to actively pursue recruiting and selecting candidates for the Customs Auditor positions to meet the hiring floor target by the end of FY2023. OT also reported that it is also focusing on external risk factors that may impact its goal of reaching its targets for the auditor positions. The factors reported include potential agency budget salary shortfalls, any further hiring freeze, significant changes in U.S. economic job market, potential resolutions to any COVID-19 implications or derivative pandemic outbreaks. OT reported that it will review and work to develop mitigation efforts to minimize the impact of the risk as it finalizes its hiring plan for the auditor positions.

Southwest Border: Additional Actions Needed to Address Cultural and Natural Resource Impacts from Barrier Construction

GAO-23-105443
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP, with input from Interior, DOD, Tribes, and stakeholders, should evaluate lessons learned from its prior assessments of potential impacts. (Recommendation 3)
Open
CBP agreed with this recommendation. We will update the status of the recommendation when we received additional information from the agency.

Facial Recognition Services: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Take Actions to Implement Training, and Policies for Civil Liberties

GAO-23-105607
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should determine the extent that staff use facial recognition services to develop and share information in support of other agencies' criminal investigations (such as number of CBP staff that use the services and how often they do so). (Recommendation 4)
Open
As of March 2024, this recommendation remains open. CBP officials said they discontinued use of commercial facial recognition systems for CBP's Office of Field Operations at the end of fiscal year 2023. However, CBP officials said they are working to establish new and updated guidance for analytical research and new employee orientation that support the intent of this recommendation. CBP anticipates completing these actions by May 2024. Once complete, we will review CBP's actions to determine the extent that they address the recommendation.

Facial Recognition Technology: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Better Assess Privacy and Other Risks

GAO-21-518
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should, after implementing a mechanism to track non-federal systems, assess the risks of using such systems, including privacy and accuracy-related risks. (Recommendation 10)
Open
As of March 2024, this recommendation remains open. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told us employees using IT systems are required to complete Privacy Threshold Assessments, which include information about collection, use, and retention of personally identifiable information. The Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office uses the Privacy Threshold Assessments to determine whether additional privacy compliance documentation is needed. CBP provided Privacy Threshold Assessments for two non-federal facial recognition systems. The agency also said it is drafting Privacy Impact Assessments for those two systems, including an assessment of the risks associated with the systems, with an estimated completion date in June 2024.

Facial Recognition Services: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Take Actions to Implement Training, and Policies for Civil Liberties

GAO-23-105607
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The Commissioner of CBP should assess whether training would benefit staff using facial recognition services to develop and share information in support of other agencies' criminal investigations, incorporating information on the extent to which staff use such services. (Recommendation 5)
Open
As of March 2024, this recommendation remains open. CBP officials said they discontinued use of facial recognition systems for CBP's Office of Field Operations at the end of fiscal year 2023. CBP officials also said they are creating a new training course that applies to the use of facial recognition regardless of the tool--government or commercially obtained. CBP anticipates completing these actions by May 2024. Once complete, we will review CBP's actions to determine the extent that they address the recommendation.

Customs and Border Protection: Actions Needed to Enhance Acquisition Management and Knowledge Sharing

GAO-23-105472
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
United States Customs and Border Protection The CBP Commissioner should update acquisition guidance, such as the PLP Guide, to accurately reflect how key governance councils are conducting portfolio management. (Recommendation 1)
Open
DHS did not agree with this recommendation, but stated in its April 2023 response to our report that the CBP Office of Acquisitions would be taking action that we believe will address the intent of our recommendation. As of July 2023, DHS has not taken action to address this recommendation. We will provide an update on the agency's progress once one is available.
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