BITMAP Authorization Act

This legislation establishes the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program (BITMAP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The primary purpose of BITMAP is to proactively address and reduce national security, border security, and terrorist threats before they reach the international border of the United States. It achieves this by coordinating with foreign governments and other federal agencies to facilitate the voluntary sharing of biometric and biographic information collected from foreign nationals. Under BITMAP, the Secretary of Homeland Security, through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is tasked with providing capabilities, including training and equipment, to partner countries. These capabilities enable foreign governments to voluntarily collect and compare identification data from individuals against various U.S. national security, border security, and counter-terrorism databases, such as IDENT and the Terrorist Screening Database. The goal is to identify, prevent, detect, and interdict high-risk individuals who may attempt to enter the United States via illicit pathways. The bill mandates that DHS ensure U.S. citizen data captured by BITMAP is expunged unless retained for specific law enforcement or intelligence purposes. New BITMAP operations in foreign countries require formal agreements and congressional notification. The program is subject to annual reports to Congress detailing its strategic goals, progress, budget, and effectiveness, along with regular briefings and a triennial audit by the Government Accountability Office to assess its overall impact. This section of the Homeland Security Act is set to terminate six years after its enactment.