On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, the House is scheduled to consider H.R. 6368, the Border Security Information Improvement Act of 2012, under a suspension of the rules requiring a two-thirds majority vote for approval.  The bill was introduced on September 10, 2012, by Rep. Quico Canseco (R-TX) and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

H.R. 6368 would require the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, to provide a report to Congress on the Departments' ability to track, investigate and quantify cross-border violence along the Southwest Border and provide recommendations to Congress on how to accurately track, investigate, and quantify cross-border violence.

Specifically, the bill would require the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to submit a report on cross-border violence on the Southwest Border to include the following:

• The definition of cross-border violence used by law enforcement components within the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security;

• The ability of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and their law enforcement components to track, investigate, quantify, and report on the level of cross-border violence occurring along the Southwest Border of the United States;

• The extent to which the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security define and track cross-border violence and steps being taken to address the effects of cross-border violence along the Southwest Border of the United States;

• The information and data on cross-border violence collected and made available through inter-agency taskforces on the Southwest Border of the United States, including the Southwest Border High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Arizona's Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats, the El Paso Intelligence Center, the Border Enforcement and Security Task Force, and State and Local Fusion Centers; and

• The additional resources needed to track, investigate, quantify and report on the level of cross-border violence occurring along the United States-Mexico border.

According to the sponsor's office, in recent years there has been a troubling increase in drug-related violence in Mexico, with some estimates placing the number of people killed in Mexico at 40,000 since 2006.  The limited data examining the amount and extent of cross-border violence is incomplete.  H.R. 6368 would seek  to increase the ability of federal law enforcement agencies to track, investigate and report on cross-border violence by requiring the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, to provide a report to Congress on the Departments’ ability to track, investigate and quantify cross-border violence along the Southwest Border and provide recommendations to Congress on how to accurately track, investigate, and quantify cross-border violence.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has yet to release a cost estimate for implementing H.R. 6368, however, it is likely to cost less than $500,000 in one fiscal year.