Thank you, Betsy. I am delighted to be with you today. It is an honor to address such an accomplished group, which continues to contribute so much of its invaluable expertise to help the Customs Service.

As you know, I have been Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations for over 3 months now. That puts me only a few years behind the Trade Support Network in planning the future of global trade, at least as far as Customs and ACE are concerned.

Indeed, in these few months I have been involved in a career's worth of major changes from the Customs Service I joined as an inspector in 1977.

We are all living now in "interesting times." It's a very different world for all of us today. And the bar is still rising on how much we have to do to respond fully to what the nation needs from us.

As I've traveled around the country, and outside the U.S. as well, talking about C-TPAT, the Container Security Initiative, and our other partnership programs, I find that the people in the public and private sectors have the same concerns. The overwhelming lesson is what the TSN has understood from its beginning, and that is, we are all in this together. Whether you are a small business, a giant corporation or the United States Government, you understand the urgent need to partner to stay viable.

Active partnership in Washington has not always been the rule, of course. President Calvin Coolidge, once boasted, "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business." Well, I won't be making that claim. Today it is clear, particularly in international trade, that we really cannot do business without an intimate understanding of each other's needs.

Of course, we will still strive to mind our own business. When the Commissioner fights for funding to reduce ACE development from 5 years to 4, Customs is minding our own business.

When we work with our neighbors in Canada and Mexico to set up new ways to expedite commercial traffic, we are minding our own business.

And when we examine containers as nonintrusively as possible to interdict any weapons of mass destruction, we are clearly taking care of business, a business so important it belongs to all of us. When we consider the threat of terrorism, it's easy to see that our business is your business, and vice versa.

Certainly no one doubts that we have much hard work to do, for our country, our families, and our neighbors in these turbulent times. Given the threats we face, we have to upgrade what we have, and we have to ensure that we are moving rapidly toward what we need to create.

As you know, Customs has over 300 ports of entry. Not long ago, I was up along the Northern Border, checking on the progress we are making in hardening our ports. As the most open society and marketplace on the planet, this is still a bit shocking. But it is necessary. Because that easy openness that we took for granted as our birthright, just like the air we breathe, is an invitation to those who want to hurt us.

Terrorists would find and exploit any avenue to inflict mindless damage to our people, our economy, our way of life.

The question then is, what business is Customs really in today. In hardening our ports, will we be hard on trade? If antiterrorism is the primary Customs mission, what does that mean for trade? And what about ACE?

I can assure you that it is absolutely true In the Office of Field Operations that we have refocused our efforts to ensure that antiterrorism is our number one priority. Considering the threats we face, I think most all of us could agree that there is no other option.

But not too long after my selection, the Washington Post published a story entitled, "Changing Customs: Can Free Trade Flourish With Focus on Terrorism?"

Of course, the answer is yes. I submit that there are now more trade facilitation programs in place or being planned than ever before in our history. These involve domestic and international partnership on a scale unthinkable just a few years ago.

Those who focus on the apparent contradictions in our mission miss our proven track record. When I was starting out as an inspector I heard people wonder about the impact of our drug interdiction efforts on trade.

Today we still ask, "How hard dare we squeeze the golden egg of trade to make sure it is not conveying contraband or concealing tools of terrorism?"

This is not a parochial question. It has international significance, and not just along our borders. And given the events of 9/11, certainly many different answers — some very extreme — were possible.

But Commissioner Bonner has answered this plainly, powerfully, and consistently. In the same Post article he promised that, "The Customs Service is going to continue doing business the way it has in the past, and that is working with and listening to the trade community."

Just one month ago, in an email to all Customs employees on the eve of 9/11, the Commissioner said this:

Combating terrorism is our number one priority, and you -- the men and women of the U.S. Customs Service -- have defended our country and have developed and implemented many important initiatives to further our number one priority. We must do everything we can to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, from entering our country. And we need to do this while simultaneously continuing to work on ways to facilitate the flow of trade so important to the U.S. economy and the economic wellbeing of all Americans. As we have proved since 9-11, greater security does not have to mean choking off the flow of trade. We can and should provide the necessary security while preserving and, when possible, even improving the movement of legitimate trade and travel. This is the Customs challenge. It is our greatest challenge and we are rising to meet it."

That last part, improving the movement of legitimate trade, is why you've been working so hard these last 3 days, and over the last several years. You should be very proud of this important mission and your progress.

And I can tell you, I am proud of the work we are doing to maintain security while facilitating trade. When we use automation and human intelligence to screen containers that could be threats, and we examine them effectively without stopping the flow of trade, I believe we are living up to the Commissioner's promise.

Certainly, the importance of international trade to this country demands all of our best efforts. We need our best ideas to serve our economy while preserving and enhancing our security. And speaking of our best, most of you know Betsy Durant, who has been the Executive Director of Trade Programs for many years. Well, since 9/11, we reorganized Trade Programs. Trade Programs has become "Trade Compliance and Facilitation." Now "Facilitation" has not traditionally been that common a word in Customs organization charts. But ladies and gentlemen, compliance and facilitation do go together.

There is a balance. And even more compelling than that notion is the reality that good targeting makes for better facilitation of legitimate trade. There really is no contradiction in improving trade compliance and, simultaneously, facilitation.

Making sure this happens, as the TSN demonstrates again and again, is a challenging and very collaborative process. You must have and be good partners to undertake this kind of task.

And when you do this as effectively as the TSN, you leverage the very impressive experience and intelligence of the group to achieve more of everyone's goals.

Up to now I have not mentioned the Department of Homeland Security. From the beginning, of course, the Commissioner has fully supported creation of the Department of Homeland Security and our role in it.

As you know, the Customs Service is to be absorbed into this new department. Potentially, the transition could begin to occur early in 2003. Should this negate our concern about trade? Not at all.

The Commissioner has made very clear in every forum that we remain committed to protecting our homeland and the American people from international terrorists and implements of terrorism, as well as drugs and other contraband. If you saw the reports I receive daily, and what is given to the Commissioner, you would see that we are still tracking our significant drug seizures, as well as trade compliance issues like intellectual property rights. We have not gone out of the Customs part of the Customs business.

But for us, it is simply indisputable that our trade mission is inextricably linked to our security. Because of this, ACE is still on schedule, and was not delayed, despite some initial press reports to the contrary.

The ACE schedule continues on, with your continued invaluable participation. And this urgent emphasis on ACE does not contradict or detract from mission number one.

The Administration and the Congress all consider ACE to be a significant part of our antiterrorism arsenal. That arsenal can only be as good as its intelligence. And ACE will be the tool to maximize our ability to use trade information intelligently, efficiently and effectively, for compliance, for facilitation, and for our very security.

In closing, I want to reiterate that while structural and program changes have impacted the Office of Field Operations, these adjustments will not diminish our concern about trade and the issues impacting you in the trade community.

I also want again to recognize the outstanding work of the TSN in educating Customs. You have performed this task often and well, and I want to thank you for the great public service you provide in support of our mission and our nation.

Now if you'd like, I will be glad to take a few questions.