CBP's Allen Says Budget May Force ACS Closure Next Year

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The budget environment will force the move to Automated Commercial Environment whether industry feels completely ready or not, said CBP’s Executive Director of the ACE Business Office Cindy Allen, speaking at the National Association of Customs Brokers and Forwarders of America conference April 25. As previously announced, the funding may be used up by next year, forcing the agency to make difficult choices on continuing to use certain pre-departure information systems, she said.

CBP and industry need to make the decisions together on the path forward, Allen said. If CBP is unable get the necessary increase in funding, it will be the Automated Commercial System (ACS), not ACE, that gets shutdown. The question now is at what point can ACS really be turned off, she said. The priority will be planning for that reality, she said.

The delivery of Simplified Entry provides the building blocks for ACE, Allen said. There are about 500 fixes in the pipeline to be made to ACE, some small and some large, she said. The recent slew of maintenance window extensions have been for the deployment of M1. There will be similar system outages as CBP makes the fixes, she said.