CATCH Fentanyl Act

The bill would require the CBP Innovation Team, working with the DHS Science and Technology Directorate, to launch pilot projects within one year of enactment to test technology enhancements to nonintrusive inspection (NII) systems — equipment such as X-ray and gamma-ray imagers — used at land border ports of entry. The team would have to test at least five types of NII enhancements drawn from at least one of five categories: artificial intelligence, machine learning, high-performance computing, quantum information sciences, or other emerging technologies. Enhancements would be evaluated on detection accuracy, inspection speed, compatibility with existing infrastructure, safety, and cost-effectiveness. The bill would also require data privacy safeguards and pre-implementation and post-termination privacy and civil liberties reports to Congress.

The pilot program would run for five years and would not authorize any new appropriations — the work must be carried out within existing resources. At the three-year mark and again 180 days after the program ends, the Secretary of Homeland Security would submit comprehensive reports to Congress assessing each tested technology, costs, and a plan for potential rollout across all land ports of entry.

CBP officers and the CBP Innovation Team who would design and operate the pilots; private-sector technology companies that may be solicited for commercially viable solutions; travelers and commercial shippers whose cargo and vehicles pass through land ports of entry and would be scanned by tested systems; and congressional oversight committees that would receive the performance and privacy reports.

If the pilot produces strong results, the mandated deployment plan could drive a significant upgrade of cargo and vehicle inspection infrastructure at every U.S. land port of entry, potentially improving fentanyl and contraband detection rates. Because no new money is authorized, the immediate operational impact depends on how CBP redirects existing resources — and the privacy and civil liberties reporting requirements create a formal accountability mechanism for new AI-based scanning tools.

Within one year of enactment, the CBP Innovation Team would launch pilot projects at land ports of entry, coordinating with the DHS Science and Technology Directorate and the existing NII systems program. The team may solicit private-sector input on commercially available technologies. Projects would track quantitative metrics — detection probability, false alarm rates, throughput, and officer workload — over the five-year life of the pilot. Before deploying any technology, the Secretary must submit privacy and civil liberties impact reports to Congress; a second report follows within 180 days of program termination. All work must use existing appropriations.