HOUSE APPROVES ACE FUNDING, BUT APPROPRIATIONS BILL MAY BE VETOED

HOUSE APPROVES ACE FUNDING, BUT APPROPRIATIONS BILL MAY BE VETOED    U.S. Customs’ modernization effort took a big step forward Thursday night when the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill containing $130 million for development of the agency’s future computer system.
   The $30.3-billion Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill passed the House by 212 to 209 vote. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government is credited as the driving force behind the approval of Customs automation funding.
   For several years, Customs has been unable to secure funds to start building its $1.4 billion Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The system is needed to replace the agency’s 17-year-old Automated Commercial System (ACS).
   Industry groups, such as the Coalition for Customs Automation Funding, the Joint Industry Group, National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America and American Association of Exporters and Importers, stepped up their lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill during the past two years to encourage Congress to fund ACE.
   Congress “got the message that it’s important to the nation,” said S.W. “Woody” Hall Jr., assistant commissioner for information technology at Customs, to a group of executives at the Joint Industry Group’s annual meeting in Washington yesterday. “It’s important for your ability to grow.”
   The bill also contains $123 million for ACS maintenance and $5.4 million for the International Trade Data System, the future front-end system to ACE.
   While the appropriations bill passed the House, it must be approved by the Senate. A Senate vote of the bill is expected next week.
   If the funding is approved, Customs plans to start seeking bids from private sector systems developers by mid-October to build the future system. Development of ACE could start as early as spring 2001, Hall said.
   But President Clinton is expected to veto the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill, because it doesn’t contain enough funding to restructure the Internal Revenue Service, build new courthouses, and enhance antiterrorism programs.
   Many of the bill’s provisions, such as the Customs automation funding, may have to be incorporated in a year-end funding resolution.