– Tuesday, the House passed eleven bills to better secure our homeland by improving our nation’s defenses and staying ahead of ever-evolving threats. Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) today released the following statement regarding three of those bills as he is an original cosponsor of them. H.R. 5869 and H.R. 6400 were passed unanimously. H.R. 6439 passed by a vote of 272-119 after the unanimous vote did not pass:

“We must ensure our ports of entry, land borders and maritime borders are secure from those who wish to do us harm, so I am grateful these bills passed the House this week. They are crucial to our efforts to keep our nation safe and to making sure we have the best technology available to identify and stop threats to our nation before it is too late.

I am thankful H.R. 6439 passed, even though certain folks on the other side of the aisle objected to this bipartisan supported security program. BITMAP expands the use of biometrics to track terrorists who try and enter our country. The war on our borders and counter terrorism efforts continues by people who would rather obstruct, than support these crucial steps forward.”

The three bills passed by the House are:

-H.R.6439, the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program Authorization Act, authorizes the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP) within the Department of Homeland Security. BITMAP allows countries the United States has partnered with to exchange biometric data on special interest individuals to identify potential threats before they reach our border.

-H.R.5869, the Maritime Border Security Review Act, directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a threat analysis of our maritime borders and deliver recommendations and vulnerabilities to the relevant congressional committees.

-H.R.6400, the United States Ports of Entry Threat and Operational Review Act directs the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a threat analysis on our air, land, and sea ports of entry as well as  develop an operational strategy and implementation plan to address ports of entry threats.