COAC undergoes organizational change

COAC undergoes organizational change    The Department of Homeland Security has relinquished its role leading the quarterly meetings of a federal advisory panel on international trade and security matters.
   The department has delegated Customs and Border Protection to co-chair the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) along with the Treasury Department, Acting CBP Commissioner Deborah Spero said at Thursday’s meeting.
   Noticeably absent from the meeting was Elaine Dezenski, DHS acting assistant secretary for policy development, who has run the meetings for the past two years.
   Spero, who presided in Dezenski’s absence, said the change is in line with Secretary Michael Chertoff’s reorganization of the department last year, which allowed agencies such as CBP to report directly to the secretary, rather than being managed by an intermediate layer of bureaucracy at the since-disbanded Border and Transportation Security directorate. Now that CBP has a direct line of communication with the secretary, there is less need for DHS to be in charge of COAC, although department officials will still attend meetings and provide advice as necessary. Spero said CBP will have primary responsibility for the issues on the agenda.
   She assured the COAC members that their work will continue to be valued.
   Some COAC members said in private that there was some initial concern that COAC would still be able to provide input about other parts of the department, and the government at large, because the group comprises carriers and other members of the trade community that deal with agencies besides CBP.
   Karen Phillips, vice president of public and government affairs at Canadian National and COAC’s lead liaison to CBP, said the group has been assured that the move will not make it more difficult for COAC to deal with trade and security issues involving other agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration.
   The change “does not signal diminution of COAC’s role or trade issues,” Phillips said in prepared comments.
   Another COAC member agreed afterwards that the change would have little impact on how COAC operates.
   COAC was formed 20 years ago to assist the Treasury Department and the U.S. Customs Service on ways to improve customs and commercial trade operations. When Customs was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and became Customs and Border Protection in 2003, COAC added cross-border security issues its mandate and became a federal advisory committee for DHS and Treasury.