# The CATCH Fentanyl Act: What It Does

This bill creates a test program to try out new technology at the U.S.-Mexico border to help catch drugs and contraband more quickly. Right now, border agents use X-ray machines and other scanning equipment to inspect vehicles and cargo containers coming into the country. This bill says the government should experiment with newer, smarter technology—like artificial intelligence and advanced computer systems—to see if they can make these inspections faster and more accurate at catching illegal drugs like fentanyl, weapons, and smuggled goods.

The Department of Homeland Security has five years to run these pilot projects at various land border crossings. They'll test at least five different types of new technology, focusing on things like AI systems that can automatically recognize threats in X-ray images, machine learning programs that get better at spotting problems over time, and other cutting-edge tools. The goal is straightforward: speed up the inspection process so cars and trucks don't sit in long lines, while also improving the ability to catch dangerous contraband. The government will measure success by looking at how many threats each technology catches, how many false alarms it triggers, how quickly cargo moves through, and how much it costs to implement.

After the testing period ends, the government must report to Congress about which technologies actually worked best and provide a plan for rolling out the most effective ones across all border crossings. The bill also requires the government to study any privacy concerns that might come up from using these new technologies and to make sure personal data collected during inspections is protected. Importantly, this bill doesn't ask Congress to spend any new money—the government has to use existing budgets to fund these experiments.

CATCH Fentanyl Act

Higgins, Clay

Contraband Awareness Technology Catches Harmful Fentanyl Act or the CATCH Fentanyl Act&nbsp;This bill establishes a pilot program for improving the inspection of conveyances or modes of transportation at land ports of entry along U.S. borders&nbsp;to detect contraband, illegal drugs, illegal weapons, human smuggling, and threats. Specifically, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Innovation Team must test technology in at least one of the categories of artificial intelligence, machine learning, high-performance computing, quantum information sciences, or other emerging technologies.&nbsp;The team must also test and collect data regarding at least five types of enhancements to nonintrusive inspection technology (e.g., X-ray machines) able to be deployed at land ports of entry.