Central Louisiana News

U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy and Catherine Cortez Masto have introduced the Customs Facilitation Act of 2025, aimed at modernizing customs laws to improve the efficiency of goods and services movement across U.S. borders.

Senator Cassidy emphasized the potential benefits of improved trade processing: “Trade done right has the ability to create more jobs in the United States and lower the price of goods that we purchase.” He noted that the legislation seeks to streamline customs processes to benefit all involved.

Senator Cortez Masto highlighted inefficiencies in current procedures: “Moving goods through America’s ports creates jobs and lowers costs for everyday Americans, but red tape and complicated reporting requirements are making the process of doing so too inefficient.” She added that the act proposes sensible changes to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses.

Currently, importing goods into the U.S. involves fragmented processes requiring multiple redundant data entries across different government agencies. For example, a simple import like wet pet food demands 54 data elements submitted to three separate agencies—the FDA, USDA, and NOAA—with overlapping information and inconsistent definitions.

The new legislation follows previous efforts by Senator Cassidy, including last year's introduction of the Customs Modernization Act aimed at enhancing CBP's supply chain visibility and improving data sharing among government bodies. Another related bill was the Manifest Modernization Act, which sought to standardize import data requirements to aid in curbing illegal trafficking.