Silver Spring, MD, March 8, 2024 – It has been a long time coming, but after years of lobbying House and Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill the Customs Business Fairness Act (CBFA) will now become codified into law.
Today, the Senate passed H.R. 4366 Fiscal Consolidated Appropriations Act which was passed by the House on Wednesday and will be sent immediately to the President for his signature before the funding runs out at midnight. H.R. 4366 is a “minibus” bill that combines six agency spending bills into one and included CBFA.
CBFA is vital to the protection of our nation’s customs brokers and their tens of thousands of employees. The bill requested a long-sought technical change in the bankruptcy laws to protect customs brokers who have paid duties to CBP on behalf of importers that subsequently file for bankruptcy.
Through CBFA, NCBFAA has sought "subrogation" rights for customs brokers who have received money or paid duties to the U.S. government on behalf of a bankrupt importer. If a customs broker could be subrogated to the priority rights of CBP, any payments from the importer to CBP via the customs broker during the 90-day period would likewise no longer be subject to a preference payment recovery action.
“For 20 years, NCBFAA has sought subrogation rights for customs brokers in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code,” said NCBFAA President Jose D. (JD) Gonzalez. “This important victory for our customs broker industry could not have been accomplished without the steadfast work of our Legislative Committee leadership and Legislative Advisor Nicole Bivens Collinson of Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, PA, as well as our member companies, to lobby the passage of CBFA.”
NCBFAA especially wants to thank Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) for championing CBFA in the 118th Congress. He re-introduced the CBFA bill (H.R. 1453) at the request of the association on March 8, 2023. Through NCBFAA member lobbying, the bipartisan legislation garnered 28 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. The association wholeheartedly thanks every member who engaged in our letter-writing campaigns to encourage their Representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 1453.
NCBFAA also wants to express our deepest gratitude to the numerous individuals and supporting organizations who have worked tirelessly over the past two decades to make CBFA permanent in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. These include past and current NCBFAA Legislative Committee leaders Charlene Riley, Laurie Arnold, Leah Ellis, and Steven Powell, as well as former NCBFAA Legislative Representative Jon Kent, and the association members who met with countless Hill lawmakers over the years during the annual NCBFAA Government Affairs Conferences to lobby CBFA. In addition, we want to especially thank the longtime lobbying of CBFA by the New York/New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders & Brokers Association, JFK Airport Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association, and International Trade Surety Association.
Contact
Megan Montgomery
Executive Vice President
NCBFAA
Email: mmontgomery@ncbfaa.org
Christopher Gillis
Communications Director
NCBFAA
Email: cgillis@ncbfaa.org
