NCBFAA objects to ACE funding cut

NCBFAA objects to ACE funding cut    The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America is asking Congress to maintain full funding for U.S. Customs' Automated Commercial Environment after the Obama administration proposed in its 2010 fiscal year budget to cut planned funding for the massive computer development program by $49 million.
   In a letter to members of the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, NCBFAA President Mary Jo Muoio said, 'The longer it takes to roll out the remaining features of ACE, the more expensive it becomes. Until ACE is completed, the agency and the private sector both must operate on two systems — ACE and its predecessor Automated Commercial System ' And for every year that goes by, the cost of providing life-support to ACS mounts, as do the accompanying inefficiencies when an outdated system is prolonged in this way.'

Muoio

   U.S. Customs and Border Protection has spent about $3.5 billion developing its all-encompassing electronic system for processing trade transactions and communicating with importers and exporters through a single government window rather than agency-by-agency.
   ACE is expected to make it easier to file import-export documentation and allow the government to analyze a much richer set of data related to import safety, security, counterfeit products, trade compliance and other issues.