U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today announced a funding boost to purchase new border security technology.
Sen. Ossoff announced this year’s bipartisan government funding bill, which passed Congress and has now been signed into law, includes a 23% increase in funding to purchase and deploy next-generation technology to help strengthen border security, combat human trafficking, and prevent illegal drugs from crossing the border.
The funding will help purchase new surveillance towers, new tunnel detection technology, mobile surveillance technology, and more.
“Illegal fentanyl trafficking is devastating Georgia families and putting our kids at risk. I helped bring Republicans and Democrats together to fund new border security technology that will help improve detection of illegal fentanyl and narcotics at points of entry and will help secure the border,” Sen. Ossoff said.
Sen. Ossoff continues working to strengthen border security and has worked to advance bipartisan legislation to hire and retain more border security officers.
Earlier this month, Sen. Ossoff introduced the Deploy Fentanyl Scanners Act of 2024 to help deploy scanners at ports of entry to better identify contraband, including fentanyl, being smuggled across the border through personal vehicles.
Last month, Sen. Ossoff joined a group of Senators calling on President Biden to include robust Federal funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drug trafficking prevention initiatives in his FY2025 budget.
Last year, Sen. Ossoff helped pass the bipartisan Securing America’s Ports of Entry Act through the U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, which would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire, train, and assign no less than 600 additional CBP officers a year, until the agency’s staffing needs are met, to secure ports of entry across the country.
In October 2023, Sen. Ossoff delivered $700,000 in additional funding for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) to supplement their evidence analysis and efforts to clear GBI’s criminal investigation backlog related to fentanyl.
