Background

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), established in 2002 as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is responsible for protecting our nation’s borders and ensuring free trade and travel. The facilities and other real property assets of CBP are important to this mission. To effectively support its inspection and law enforcement responsibilities, CBP required a comprehensive strategy to manage its facilities and real property assets. CBP contracted with Fentress to develop a project prioritization process and Five-Year Capital Investment Plan.

Project Summary

CBP initially hired Fentress to review existing facility planning methods and to develop project identification and prioritization criteria for land ports of entry and border patrol facilities. In performing this work, Fentress assisted CBP in establishing prioritization criteria that included CBP missions and operations, security, facility maintenance, and workload and personnel growth. Fentress also developed recommendations to improve business processes in the areas of facility assessments, data availability and management, and a capital investment program. The resulting effort was published in a report to Congress entitled Master Construction Planning Process: Planning Process for CBP Real Property Investments. The goals of the Master Construction Planning Process were to align facility investments with the CBP mission; plan, budget, and execute facility investments objectively and fairly; responsibly forecast future growth; and credibly identify and justify needed projects.

Results

The Master Construction Planning Process was well received by DHS and Congress. This acceptance enabled CBP to acquire the necessary funding and support to implement a national assessment program, called Strategic Resource Assessments, and the National Capital Investment Program. Fentress was retained by CBP to implement these initiatives. Fentress also worked with CBP to enhance design standards in the areas of technology and security, develop a space calculator for generating operational requirements, draft a plan for transitioning GSA port of entry facilities to CBP, and produce a space consolidation cost-effectiveness model.