Securing America's Ports Act
Latest action. Became public lawWhat a bill becomes when enacted, numbered by Congress and order of enactment: Public Law 119-4 is the 4th law of the 119th Congress.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) No: 116-299.
Securing America's Ports Act
This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to report to Congress a plan to perform high-throughput scanning of all commercial and passenger vehicles and freight rail traffic entering the United States at a land port of entry or rail-border crossing using large-scale non-intrusive inspection systems, such as X-ray and gamma-ray imaging systems, or similar technology. The plan shall include elements such as (1) an inventory of such systems currently in use, (2) the estimated costs of achieving a 100% scanning rate, and (3) the anticipated impact that increasing the scanning rate will have on wait times at land ports of entry and rail-border crossings. DHS shall periodically report to Congress on the progress in implementing the plan.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Public Law" stage on January 5, 2021. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
This bill has been enacted. It is law.
The record's latest action, on January 5, 2021: Became Public Law No: 116-299.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Xochitl Torres Small (D-NM) introduced it on November 26, 2019, and 9 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 6 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HousePassed
- SenatePassed
- PresidentSigned into law