# H.R. 993 (119th): Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act

Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act This bill requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security to develop a plan to identify, integrate, and deploy emerging and innovative technologies to improve border security operations. Such technologies may incorporate artificial intelligence, machine-learning, automation, fiber-optic sensing technology, nanotechnology, optical and cognitive radar, modeling and simulation technology, hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors, and imaging, identification, and categorization systems. The bill authorizes CBP to establish one or more Innovation Teams to research and adapt commercial technologies that may be used by CBP. The plan must describe how the Innovation Teams have been implemented and also detail goals and timelines for adoption of qualifying technologies, metrics and key performance parameters for determining the plan's effectiveness, which technologies used by other federal agencies CBP may also utilize, which existing authorities CBP may use to procure technologies, how CBP legacy border technology programs may be replaced, the expected privacy and security impact of security-related technology on border communities, and recent technological advancements in specified technologies. CBP must provide the plan to Congress within 180 days of the bill’s enactment. The bill also requires CBP to annually report to Congress regarding the activities of the Innovation Teams.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: border_security. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: congressional_reporting. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: immigration. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: technology_procurement. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 65: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill pursues a legitimate prudential goal of modernizing border security and requires planning, metrics, reporting, and a privacy-impact assessment. It does not itself grant new search, seizure, or surveillance authority, so it is not a direct advance of moral harm. Its surveillance-capable sensing and AI tools near border communities, however, raise real concerns that keep it from a clean good classification.
Theological note: The issue touches on the proper use of state power to secure borders, which can serve the public peace, alongside the stewardship duty to limit surveillance technology so it does not intrude unjustly on border communities and their neighbors. The bill's emphasis on assessing privacy impact and reporting to Congress engages the concern that government power remain accountable and bounded. These are matters of prudential judgment rather than direct moral evil on the face of the text.

## Recorded votes

Roll 65: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass. Yea 406 · Nay 9 · Other 17.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-993-119/