CBP Tackling Accreditation and Cost Issues for Broker Continuing Ed Requirement, Says Official
LAS VEGAS -- The question of how to accredit continuing education classes for customs brokers continues to bedevil CBP, but the agency is starting to make some progress toward a proposed rule, said Heather Sykes, CBP branch chief-Broker Management, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference April 9. CBP has started work on its economic impact analysis on continuing education requirements, a necessary step before drafting a proposed rule. Rather than issue all of its "role of the broker" changes at once, CBP is now considering breaking the changes out into several "packages" of proposed regulations. One package would be the continuing education proposed rule, which Sykes very tentatively said could come in 2015. Others will address importer bona fides and broker employee reporting requirements.
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As far as continuing education requirements go, “CBP is struggling a bit with some of the questions involved, mostly those that have to do with the accreditation process and how that's going to work,” said Sykes. “We're trying to look into the issues, and we need to make some policy decisions before the regulations are actually drafted to move forward,” she said. Specific questions the agency is facing include the contents of an application to be an accreditor, whether accreditors can accredit their own courses, and suspension and revocation. Under the current plan, brokers would be allowed to satisfy 8 out of the 40 required continuing education hours through non-accredited courses, and CBP is also trying to decide what documentation would be acceptable to prove a broker completed a non-accredited course.
Nonetheless, parts of the framework for a continuing education class accreditation scheme is starting to come together. Sykes says the plan is for CBP to accept applications to become accreditors of continuing education courses every five years. The agency would then select a “small pool” of five to ten applicants to be accreditors. Every five years, the application cycle would come up again, and the agency could either select the same accreditors or pick completely new ones, said Sykes.
Role of Broker Changes Now Seen Split Into Several Rules
Despite its original plan to combine all of its role of the broker changes in a single rulemaking (see 13031422), CBP is now planning to break out components into their own proposed rules. “We're looking at splitting this into multiple regulatory packages instead of just having one for all role of broker changes,” said Sykes. The continuing education proposal would be a “standalone package,” according to Sykes. "We're looking at possibly having something out in 2015. but definitely no guarantees at this point,” she said. Another standalone package would cover importer bona fides.
A change to the definition of “employee” in Part 111 so that brokers don't have to report employees that aren't involved in customs business is also still being considered (see 13092525). Sykes said CBP understands that many brokers have employees that don't engage in customs business, such as warehouse workers. CBP does use the information required from brokers on these employees to guard against security risks. But the agency also sees why there is concern over the burden of collecting information on employees that don't touch customs transactions. “CBP is looking to limit the definition of employee in 19 CFR 111.1 to limit it just to those that are engaged in customs business,” said Sykes. “Of course, this change would be included in any regulatory package that would be put forth to modernize our Part 111 regulations."
CBP Looking at Low-Cost, No-Travel Options for Broker Education
As it has conducted outreach on adding continuing education requirements for customs brokers, CBP has gotten some negative feedback on the proposal. “There are some people that say their concern is that it's going to be too costly, that they're going to have to attend a number of conferences or training that's going to cost them a lot of money,” said Sykes. There's also a question of time investment, especially for smaller brokers, she said. They're worried about continuing education requirements forcing them to spend time that they could otherwise spend with their clients, she said.
That could be why CBP is emphasizing a low-cost approach toward broker continuing education. “One big thing that we've been looking at in putting a continuing education requirement into place was that there should be low cost and no cost educational opportunities available,” said Sykes. Travel should not be required, and brokers should be able to get their continuing education credits outside of a traditional classroom setting. “Webinars, webcasts, conference calls, your local port meetings -- things of that sort would be able to count toward the continuing education requirement that we put into place,” said Sykes.