# Understanding the Northern Border Ports Bill

This bill is about getting border crossing stations between the U.S. and Canada back to their pre-pandemic hours. During COVID-19, many of these ports of entry reduced their operating hours to limit exposure and staffing needs. This bill says those ports need to go back to operating at least as many hours per day as they were before the pandemic started.

The practical effect is that if a border crossing used to be open from 6 a.m. to midnight before COVID, it would need to return to those same hours now. This applies to all U.S. ports of entry along the Canadian border. The bill puts this requirement on the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, making them responsible for making sure it happens.

Who does this affect? Primarily people and businesses that regularly cross the northern border—truck drivers hauling goods, commuters who work on the other side, tourists, and companies that depend on cross-border trade. If a crossing is currently open fewer hours than it was before the pandemic, this bill would require it to expand back to those earlier hours, making it easier for people to cross at times that might currently be unavailable. For border communities and trade-dependent businesses, this could mean more convenient access and potentially faster commerce. The bill essentially says the reduced pandemic hours should be temporary, not permanent.

To require ports of entry along the northern border to remain open as many hours per day as they were open prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Armstrong, Kelly

<html><body><p>This bill requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that the operating hours of all ports of entry located on the United States-Canada border are equal to or greater than the operating hours that were in place immediately before the declaration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.</p></body></html>