The White House last month proposed the creation of a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security that would be charged with guarding the nation's borders. The new agency would oversee the U.S. Coast Guard, Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Border Patrol, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture, and the recently created Transportation Security Administration.

"Because terrorism is a global threat, we must have complete control over who and what enters the United States," the administration stated last month when it sent legislation that would create the new agency to Capitol Hill.

Some Washington observers expressed hope that a cabinet-level security agency might actually streamline the importing process. "It certainly does hold promise in terms of coordinating the government agencies now charged with policy as well as enforcing security measures," says Peter Gatti, vice president of international policy for the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), the nation's largest shipper organization. "We are optimistic that this new department will provide a coordinating function."

"There could be some big improvements in clearance at the border," says John Simpson, a former Treasury official who now serves as president of the American Association of Exporters and Importers. "In theory at least, there would be a single window that a shipper could deal with for all agencies regulating the border."

Despite these optimistic views—and the administration's assurances that the new department will still work to facilitate trade—shippers may have reason to worry that a new department could prompt the Customs Service to focus on enforcement at the expense of trade. "There are concerns," Simpson says, "that the new Homeland Security Agency would not have the same institutional mandate to facilitate trade that Treasury has."

"The shipping community has learned to work with Customs," says Patrick O'Connor, a partner in the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm of Kent & O'Connor, which represents such organizations as the International Warehouse Logistics Association. "If they move Customs to a new department and it has to work with the Transportation Security Administration, then the independence Customs has enjoyed won't be there."

Gatti is concerned that the Department of Homeland Security might not respect shippers' confidentiality in trade dealings. "They are looking at Customs to provide the interface for cargo manifest information," he says. "We support using the information received on a cargo manifest only for security purposes. We don't want the information publicly disseminated."

The implications for shippers won't become clear, however, until Congress actually passes a bill. Because the list of agencies set for consolidation now falls under the jurisdiction of several different House and Senate committees, the makeup of the new agency could change. In an effort to minimize "turf wars," the Republican-controlled House established a nine-member bipartisan committee to oversee President Bush's bill. That committee will write the final version of the bill to be voted on in the House.

O'Connor, for one, thinks Congress will retain some of the current committees' oversight over particular agencies rather than placing the new department under a single committee. "I can't imagine House Ways and Means losing jurisdiction over Customs," he says.

The White House is pressing Congress to adopt its legislation before the Sept. 11 anniversary of the Al Qaeda terrorist attack, and most Capitol Hill watchers believe a new agency to oversee homeland security is a sure thing. "The creation of the department will happen," predicts O'Connor. "It's just how they are going to deal with congressional jurisdiction and oversight [that's still in question]."