Securing America's Borders Act of 2019
Latest action · Dec 14, 2020 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 615.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJul 18, 2019
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Securing America's Borders Act of 2019
This bill addresses the hiring, training, and retention of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees.
CBP shall hire a certain number of new Border Patrol agents each fiscal year until there is an equivalent of 26,370 full-time agents.
CBP may hire Border Patrol processing coordinators to assist with processing apprehended persons.
CBP shall establish a program to provide emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic training to selected agents. CBP shall also take efforts to ensure that at least 10% of agents have EMT or paramedic certifications and that such agents are assigned in sufficient numbers to the U.S. southern border.
Furthermore, the bill contains provisions to address staffing shortages in rural and remote areas, including by (1) waiving certain hiring-related requirements in some instances; (2) authorizing recruitment, relocation, and retention bonuses, subject to various requirements; and (3) authorizing special pay rates in certain instances.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shall establish a CBP Hiring and Retention Innovation Council, which shall report to Congress as to whether a new pay and employee classification system would improve CBP hiring and retention. DHS shall also carry out pilot programs to improve CBP hiring and retention.
The bill also requires CBP to make various updates and changes to its comprehensive staffing analysis.
The Government Accountability Office shall report to Congress on CBP's efforts to increase the percentage of agents with EMT or paramedic certifications and on CBP's comprehensive staffing analysis.
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Actions 5
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Dec 14, 2020Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Reported by Senator Johnson with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 116-312.
- Dec 14, 2020Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 615.
- Nov 6, 2019Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
- Jul 18, 2019Introduced in Senate
- Jul 18, 2019Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Immigration.
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Dec 14, 2020Reported to Senate
- Jul 18, 2019Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.