Autonomous Tech Featured In Senate Border And Foreign Aid Bill
The Senate's bipartisan border security and foreign aid package released Sunday includes millions of dollars to deploy innovative technology along the U.S.-Mexico border, including more autonomous systems and new artificial intelligence capabilities.
The 370-page, $118 billion proposal, which also includes additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, would tighten the asylum process, speed up deportations and close the southern border if the number of immigrants exceeds certain limits.
The border security page of the bill highlights the restrictions it places on illegal immigration. More broadly, however, the bill says the new authorities will "introduce a powerful new tool into the border security toolkit of any administration seeking to secure the border."
Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the leader of the bipartisan legislation, said in a statement that the proposal "provides funding to build a wall, improve technology at the border and add more detention centers, more agents and more deportation flights."
The bill provides US Customs and Border Protection with $758.5 million for acquisition, construction and enhancements, and more than half of those funds ($424.5 million) for the acquisition and implementation of "non-invasive surveillance."
Contactless tools, the text says, will be procured through an open tender, "including the integration of innovative productivity-enhancing technologies, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities."
Another $260 million will be allocated to CBP for use on border security technology, with the remaining $74 million going toward "aircraft acquisition and deployment."
The bulk of the technology-focused border security funding — $170 million — will go toward implementing autonomous surveillance systems "in areas not currently covered by such systems or technologies."
The bill defines these autonomous lookouts as "integrated software and/or hardware systems that use sensors, on-board computers, and artificial intelligence to identify critical items that would otherwise be identified manually by personnel."
Additional funding will also be provided for mobile surveillance capabilities, including "replacement of mobile video surveillance systems and aging mobile surveillance equipment, missile defense systems and small unmanned aerial systems."
The bill states that no portion of the appropriated funds can be used "to procure or implement non-autonomous border protection technologies."
Although the Senate is expected to hold a preliminary vote on the proposal this Wednesday, the prospects for the bill in the lower chamber are already dark. In a statement from House Republican leadership on Monday, top Republican lawmakers said it was "a waste of time to consider this Senate bill in its current form" and declared it "Dead" when it reaches the House floor.
