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Committee on Ways and Means For Immediate Release Preserving the Dual Roles of the U.S. Customs Service Committee Explores the President’s Proposal on Homeland Security WASHINGTON - Next week, the Ways and Means Committee will examine the proposal to incorporate the U.S. Customs Service into the Department of Homeland Security. Since 1789, Customs has been a separate Federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. On June 18, 2002, President Bush proposed to transfer all assets and authority of the U.S. Customs services from Treasury to the new Homeland Security Department. In the President’s plan, Customs would be placed under an Under Secretariat for Border and Transportation Security along with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration. The hearing will focus on details of how this realignment will affect Customs and its core functions such as collection of duties and trade facilitation. “Customs has long performed the critical balancing act of assuring the security of our ports and borders while also ensuring that vital international commerce continues to flow," said Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA). "Our nation’s long-term defense rests equally upon the protectors at our borders and the engine of our economy. During this hearing, I hope we can examine how these dual functions would continue to be performed if Customs were transferred entirely to a new Homeland Security Department.”
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