U.S. Customs and Border Protection November 13, 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) intends to conduct a test to collect biometric information at the Otay Mesa, California land border port-of-entry from certain aliens entering and departing the United States. During this test, CBP will also collect biographic data from all travelers departing the United States at the Otay Mesa port-of-entry. This notice describes the scope of the test, its purpose, how it will be implemented, the persons covered, the duration of the test, and privacy considerations.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of Homeland Security will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act: Cargo Container and Road Vehicle for Transport under Customs Seal. This is a proposed extension of an information collection that was previously approved. CBP is proposing that this information collection be extended with no change to the burden hours or to the information collected. This document is published to obtain comments from the public and affected agencies.

This document adopts as a final rule, with changes, proposed amendments to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations that serve to centralize the processing of continuous bonds at CBP's Revenue Division within the Office of Administration. Upon consideration of comments received from the public in response to the proposed rulemaking, and in light of CBP's ongoing efforts concerning the development of electronic bonds, CBP has determined not to proceed at this time with certain proposed regulatory changes relating to the application, approval, and execution of bonds. CBP has also determined not to proceed with proposals relating to provisions that are the subject of other rulemakings currently under inter-departmental review. In the notice of proposed rulemaking, CBP used the terms ``CBP-approved electronic data interchange system'' and ``electronic filing'' to describe the manner by which continuous bonds may be submitted to CBP. In this final rule, these terms are clarified to reflect that continuous bonds may be scanned and submitted to CBP as an email attachment, or by facsimile. This document also amends the CBP regulations to allow for the filing of single transaction bonds pursuant to these methods. In this rulemaking, CBP also clarifies the CBP regulations to reflect that intellectual property rights sample bonds are posted to protect the importer or owner of the sample, and changes provisions of the international carrier bond regarding the payment of fees. Lastly, this final rule adopts non-substantive amendments to the regulations regarding nomenclature and organizational changes, including editorial changes to enhance general readability, and makes technical corrections to reflect statutory amendments.