GAO Recommends CBP, USPS Establish Performance Targets for Electronic Advance Data Pilots
CBP and the U.S. Postal Service should establish measurable performance objectives to assess the effectiveness of two ongoing pilots to target international mail for inspection based on electronic advance data, and should examine the costs and benefits of using this data for mail inspection compared with other methods, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Sept. 7. CBP and USPS agreed with the recommendations. “Because CBP and USPS lack clear performance goals for these pilots, they risk spending additional time and resources expanding them prior to fully assessing the pilots’ success or failure,” the GAO said. The Trade Act of 2002 requires that all cargo, not including international mail, be shipped only after transmission of electronic advance data.
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Matters are complicated in part by the sheer volume of international postal shipments to the U.S. There were about 571 million international air cargo packages in fiscal year 2016, of which express cargo accounted for "only a portion," but there were also about 621 million pieces of inbound postal shipments last fiscal year. CBP operates at 26 facilities that process express shipments, and nine facilities that inspect mail arriving from more than 180 countries, CBP Office of Field Operations Executive Assistant Commissioner Todd Owen said Sept. 7 in written testimony to Congress. While express carriers can scan each individual item upon arrival, scanning “hundreds of millions of pieces of mail” could inhibit USPS’s ability to process mail in a timely manner, or could require additional personnel and resources, the GAO said. But if electronic advance data remains limited in the inbound mail environment, it could cramp the effectiveness of CBP targeting efforts as well as its ability to reduce the volume of mail it inspects, the report says. Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security Committee on Sept. 7 advanced legislation that would increase the number of chemical screening devices available to CBP to stop fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.