HSDF THE PODCAST

Enabling the Frontline: Acquisition, Enterprise Support, and Operational Needs Part 1

• Homeland Security & Defense Forum

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Welcome to “HSDF THE PODCAST,” a collection of policy discussions on government technology and homeland security brought to you by the Homeland Security and Defense Forum

 Billions in new funding can change an agency—or break it. We sit down with CBP leaders to unpack how a seismic investment is being translated into real capabilities for the frontline: smarter hiring, better facilities, modern vehicles, and a data-centric approach to NII and biometrics that cuts friction while sharpening risk decisions.

 Featuring:

  • Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP 
  • Jody Hardin, Executive Director, Innovation and Strategy Directorate, Office of Field Operations, CBP
  • Earl Lewis, Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Office of Acquisition, CBP
  • Ryan Scudder, Former EAC for Enterprise Services, CBP (moderator)

 This discussion took place December 12, 2025 at 8th Annual Homeland Security & Defense Forum Border Security Symposium

Follow HSDF THE PODCAST and never miss latest insider talk on government technology, innovation, and security. Visit the HSDF YouTube channel to view hours of insightful policy discussion. For more information about the Homeland Security & Defense Forum (HSDF), visit hsdf.org.

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning, everyone. It's great to see you. Um thanks Chief Aguilar for inviting me to come moderate today at another Homeland uh security defense forum. Um luckily today, but he said we get the moderate panel on the frontline through acquisition, enterprise support, and operational needs. Um you just heard the intros of the the panel on here. If you know anything about CVP, you know these three people. Um so we're gonna get to a lot of good information today um between Dina, especially Earl, with the acquisitions. Everybody's always asking me about all the acquisitions, and then Jody has a lot of the insight. Operational needs, of course, NII and the biometrics. So um we're gonna get into it. I do promise towards the end, I do want to try and save enough time for questions because I always get that all the time. I get in trouble when I don't leave enough time for questions, so I definitely will try and do that. I believe Megan has where the mics will be or they'll be floating around towards the end, but we'll get to that. So I do want to get started with EAC Cooper. If you can give us kind of a little insight as to, so it's been a little over a year. Took my old job, did a great job, doing much better than I am, I'm sure. Um but so it's been a little over a year, and it's been a big year. It's been a lot of changes going on, but I know you had you always had your strategic vision of where you wanted to get going, looking at enterprise services that goes services all of CBP. So if you can just tell us a little bit about where your strategic vision has gone to this past year and where you're looking to go.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Good morning, all, and thank you for the invitation to be here. And you know, I I did have a pretty good teacher before I took this gig. So Kari Huffman. Yes, Cari Huffman, exactly. That's exactly what I meant. Uh so, but again, happy to be here. Thank you for the invitation. I think where I come from when I think about sort of the strategic vision for enterprise services, it comes down to this. A mission as important as US Customs and Border Protections deserves world-class resources, whether that's personnel, whether that's services, whether that's technology, or whether it's infrastructure. This is not a place where we should be running from behind. And so thinking about ways that we can make investments into ensuring that every one of those things that I just named is at the forefront of what government is able to bring to a mission, again, that is just this critical, that's where I start. And so for us, I'll say this the one big beautiful bill has been a game changer in our ability to deliver on that strategic vision. Everything from hiring, you know, we when I was here last year with Darby LaJoy, we talked a lot about understanding requirements and we talked about, you know, the things that are coming for CVP from a hiring perspective. You know, in 2028, we know that our many many of our CVP officers will reach fully fledged retirement capability. And so how do we think about being in front of that? How do we think about growing the number of Border Patrol agents and CVP officers to meet the need? And that starts with, again, world-class technology resources, things like our hiring portal, bringing those resources to bear so that it we are talking to the generation of people that we want to be recruiting. I, you know, I joke all the time, I am not the person you're meant to be recruiting. I'm perfectly happy to go to a website. But the reality is that everything that we think about in the hiring space has to be around a generation that is technology, that are technology nativists. So those are the types of things when we talk about world-class services, starting from that first moment of interaction with someone who might come to CBP. Certainly, once you get here as an agent, as an officer, as a professional staff member, you deserve an infrastructure that supports you. So that's everything from modernizing our fleet. And there's an enormous, enormous investment coming to us from the one big beautiful bill that's going to allow us to buy 10,000 vehicles to modernize our fleet for Border Patrol predominantly, but not exclusively, and upgrading our facilities. I mean, you you heard the deputy up here talking about, you know, his time in Tucson. I'll use one of the facilities out in Tucson as an example. There's actually a couple. They're modular facilities that were, you know, stacked together. Some of our facilities are 50 years old. Our agents and officers deserve facilities where they can feel proud to work, where they feel like the investment has been made to value them. Again, there's there are billions of dollars coming from the one big beautiful bill to be able to upgrade something like 60 facilities across our portfolio. And while, you know, across the board we have something more like 1200, we get to tackle those facilities that are really challenging for our agents and officers. And finally, advanced technology. And I'm not going to talk too much today about cloud migration because you're going to have a whole panel this afternoon and they will do it justice in a way that I never would. But creating technology and whether that's supporting NII, whether that's supporting the autonomous towers, you just heard the deputy talk about, having an infrastructure that is resilient and allows us to move quickly and nimbly in response to the operation, those are the things that we are targeting as a strategic vision. And that's for the delivery of professional services, but ultimately it is for the delivery of what our frontline agents and officers need.

SPEAKER_00:

Those are all huge pieces for it. And speaking of the one big beautiful bill, Earl, um, I know it's been your your top, one of your top priorities, but speaking of what are the top priorities for the office of acquisition, especially over the next 12 to 18 months, because that big big bill, the OB3 money is going to drop here come January. And you know, and how's that align with CBP's broader vision? We heard um uh acting commission uh deputy commissioner Marlin speak about.

SPEAKER_03:

So good morning, everyone. So you said it's one of the top priorities. It is the top priority. I'm squarely focused. The Office of Acquisition is squarely focused on the execution of the one big beautiful bill funds. Um as you know, we received a billions of dollars and across seven portfolios are our categories. And you know, I'm I'm just kind of walking you through the categories and just give you a sense of all the contract actions that we have to put in place. I think everyone knows the wall. Um, while we've already have done a lot of good work there, we have a lot more work to do. And so uh, you know, everybody talks about the wall, but like I said, there's six other areas or categories that we also have to uh work hard on. And so the EAC talked about hiring. Well, how do you hire folks? You probably gotta do some marketing and advertising, just a little, right? And hopefully you guys are seeing some of that uh as you uh watch your TV or walk around sometimes. I I see it here in DC. But um we have to also support the hiring process. So those are contracts, right? And so then you hire all these people, you gotta you know, have a place for them to work out of. And so we're we gotta put contracts in place where whether we're leasing or whether we're designing acquisition or improving existing facilities to support Border Patrol, OFO, and Air and Marine. And then um, in addition to that, there's buys like vehicles. We're gonna buy a lot of vehicles, whether it's to replace existing vehicles or new vehicles for all those hires that I was just talking about. And then I won't go too detailed. Uh, my friend here can talk about, but OFO has a lot of technology, the non-intrusive inspection uh equipment we're gonna be buying or biometric systems, things like that. And and you got border surveillance, which was discussed, um the cross-border tunneling systems and ISTs that we're gonna have to buy. And then, oh, did I not forget we got one more thing aircraft and related technology. So we're gonna be really focused on that. And so that's not the only thing that we can focus on, quite frankly. There's this thing called the revolutionary far overhaul. That is also gonna be a focus. So over the next year, I really, really want to leverage all those new capabilities and flexibilities that it allows us. And so uh I'm working already with the CPO to make sure my folks get the proper training they need so that we are instituted. Um, but when you think about that, there's a lot that comes out of getting that revolutionary for overall. We got to actually change our procurement writing system. We actually have to change things like our RPA, our bots, and we also have to change our policy internally. So that's the type of things that I'll be doing over the the next uh year or so. Um and and one last thing, I I would like to internally look at like, you know, how do we improve just our quality of our procurement documentation and our processes? And so as I discussed earlier, there's RPA and bots. We heavily use it, and I want to continue to use it, but I also want to look at things like how can we use AI possibly to help and look at the theories or the concepts such as lean, Six Sigma theory of constraints. So there's a lot of things I plan on doing over the next year or so.

SPEAKER_00:

And luckily you get those two days at the end of the week to work from home and continue working from the home. Oh, yeah, okay. To work from home. I thought you were gonna say oh, you get five days here, and the end is not how he's working from home. So it's not messy. But and I truly appreciate Earl doing this panel because he does work long, crazy hours doing all this. It's been a lot, so I really appreciate it. And I know you're working way over time, and as you always are, but even more so. We all are appreciated. XD Harding. So I get so many questions since I've been retired for the past year. People asking about things within CBP. NII and biometrics is always one of the top, it's obviously one of the very huge money-wise, but interesting in how it works and everything that's going on. So, you know, can you talk a little bit about NII being in into CBP's broader plan, but also the biometrics and and where you see this going in the especially the next year, the next two, three years. It's a lot of money to spend, but also a lot of work to actually get it out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we um we, as um Ms. Cooper was saying, we've been very fortunate in the ability to move forward with a lot of things that we've had plans for that we've been exploring and looking at for years. Um, with um the technology, it's really all about how it's supporting those processes, um helping us better identify threats, move a little faster in being able to focus our um on our mission, on our important law enforcement mission, and again, mitigating a lot of administrative types of things that we we do because the way current infrastructure is set up. So in addition to just like kind of procuring equipment, which is kind of what everybody tends to think about in NII and in biometrics, it's not just about getting this equipment that can capture, but it's setting up an infrastructure that supports the ability to make us better as government. So, looking um, you know, kind of talking a bit about what Earl was talking about, like taking a look at those processes and going, like, if we had an ideal state that we want to be in with how we can integrate all this information, because all of these, you know, cameras and um, you know, technologies that we put out there, um, scanners and everything, it's all about the data that's collected from that. And we have um systems that have been in place for a very long time. Um, they were built that way for a reason to support very important mission sets. And those are things that can't go away. Um, we're actively, dynamically having to mitigate threats on a daily basis. And at the same time, we get this influx of money and we're like, well, what are we gonna do? We need to build out all these new things with our current resources. We get a little bit of plus up of resources, but even that takes time. Um, and everything that we want to do and get into place, we have to try to, you know, work that. And again, putting the strain on poor Earl and his team because, you know, from an operational standpoint, we all we want it yesterday. Um, but we have to be accountable. I mean, this is a lot, a lot of money that has been given to us. Um, it's your taxpayer dollars. We have the um, you know, onus on us to make sure that we're spending that responsibly, that we are, you know, being economical with it, um, getting the best thing that we can to improve our operations and do that, you know, in a way that is very transparent so that people understand what we're doing with this money. A lot of investments, again, are going into some of just the back-end infrastructure upgrades that we need to do in our computer systems and our OIT infrastructure and how we collect data and transforming that at the same time that we're getting equipment out there that we are going to be using existing infrastructure on. So you can imagine from our OIT partners, you're gonna hear from them later, um, we're we're putting a lot of demands as a customer, you know, in operations. We put a lot of demands on our partners in ES and on Earl's team and everybody. So, you know, it's it's something that it again is not just about that procurement of equipment, but making sure that that equipment supports an infrastructure that we're able to operate the most efficiently that we can in the operation.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks, Jody. Um I want to kind of switch a little bit more to some of the challenges that may be going on. I mean, so if it if you don't already know, Enterprise Services has off uh office of training and development with inside of there. CBP's academies are nationally recognized as the top law enforcement academies on there. But, you know, and you spoke to it a little bit earlier with all those hiring actions. So you have annually over 3,500 um normally hiring actions. Uh this is even more so this year, you know, and then multiple training academies. What are, and we worked on this a lot before, trying to build a you know a resilient, adaptable workforce, but now there's even more pressure on we have a big workforce, you're getting a bigger workforce. How's that going?

SPEAKER_02:

I would say that we have put in place some really critical foundational pieces that we are continuing to build on. Again, candidly, with some of the investment funding we're able to use from the One Big Beautiful Bill related to hiring. But one of the things that CBP has really spent time on over the last three to five years, really heavily in these last maybe three years, has been the conversation about what it means to build a resilient workforce. And, you know, we you you've heard me, many people in this room, I talked a lot about workforce care last year. But workforce care starts for us the day that we hire a frontline employee. And certainly that's true of our professional staff as well. But the day that we hire a frontline employee and they join this family, we have to think about how do we bring them through the academy in a way that their body can physically handle, right? And they, you know, there are fitness requirements that they have to meet. But how do we not just get them through and let them meet that Fletsi standard for graduation, but help build up a resilient capability in them to be able to carry that fitness through into a role where that fitness can sometimes mean their safety. So everything from, you know, building nutritionists into our programs at the academies. And as you said, you know, our partnership with Fletzi has been extraordinary, you know, particularly this last year. But building things like nutritionists, folks to help them think about their financial wellness. Essentially, what those of you who know Chief Huffman would say is everything we can from that first day to help them think about their choices left of bang. How do we reduce those stressors? How do we create a resilient workforce that's ready to handle the demands of an incredibly challenging mission and not take it home in a way that ultimately becomes unproductive for that individual employee? And that starts at the academy, but it doesn't end there. We have, you know, we have programs focused on nearly every aspect of wellness and resiliency, whether that's some of the things I mentioned, nutritionists available, financial counselors available. We also employ for the first time and one of the few agencies outside of DOD that does operational psychologists whose job it is to work with managers to make sure that they can create the most conducive environment possible for their employees. And what that environment looks like differs drastically location to location based on what they're dealing with, what they're seeing. You know, you've heard us say before that CBP is the most humane organization in federal service, and we have the stats to prove it with our rescues. But the act of rescuing a child from a river takes a toll. How do we support the agent that did that? We think about that now in a way that a decade ago, I mean, a decade ago, if you'd told me I would have seen a Border Patrol agent wrapped around a critical incident canine after the death of a colleague grieving, I would have told you you were, you'd lost it. That is where we are in the way that we support our people now. And we have growth to give. But we've had tremendous partnership across uh, you know, all branches of government to really bring the resources to bear to be able to keep building up those programs. So that, yes, we may we hope that you come out of the academies with a resilient mindset, well equipped to handle the stresses of the job. But our job is to support our agents and our officers and our professional staff every step of the way for as long as they want to be part of the CBP family and even after they retire. And that includes their families as well, because wellness can't just be about you. You know, when you when you came home cranky, I'm sure Kathy just said, it's okay, it was just work. It has to be about the whole family. And our investments are continuing to grow in this area. And we, you know, looking at a room full of industry folks, we are looking for new ways every day that we can support our employees. The traditional ones I've talked about, you've heard about me talk, you've heard me talk about them before. But if there are new things on the horizons, we, you know, we've talked a little bit about wearables, and those have some, you know, some long-term research uh implications that we'll be looking at. But if there's something out there that we've never thought about, this is why we have the business portal. It's why we accept through an appropriate process unsolicited proposals. We want to hear what industry has to offer. Because if there is a legacy to leave, it is one that cares for our people.

SPEAKER_00:

It's still one of the uh of all the operational things that I was able to accomplish and other things that workforce care, the directorate, and everything that y'all continue to grow is still one of the things I'm most proud of. Just like my wife Kathy's the most proud of the support canines um over there on the board pool side.

SPEAKER_02:

She is the mother of canines.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, she is the mother of canines. So it is one of the the things to best leave behind that we're I'm very happy to have been a part of. So switching over to Earl a little bit more away from the the workforce, but the getting back to like the big beautiful bill, like what are some of those challenges of working like some of those large-scale acquisition programs? And if anybody in the world, CBP other than DOD, CBP does a lot of large-scale acquisition programs. How has that been able to guide you in executing when you start figuring out how to execute all those OB3 funds effectively, right? Because it's gonna it's a lot of money in a very short period of time with the results expected quickly, as Jody spoke to.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I I'll start with um one of the challenges is industry engagement, if you will. Industry reaches out a lot and wants um to know things as we're developing uh our acquisition strategy. But we're partners. We really need industry. So it's really a challenge of we want to work with you, whether it's through our RFI process, meeting with you to understand, you know, uh solutions, innovation. But we also have to balance that if we get out there and and say one thing and then we change strategies, it also can create problems because we understand that you're Going to start to invest and go down that road to support our needs. So it's a it's a balancing act. And so, you know, I believe in early engagement with industry, right? I think it's so, but it is a challenge. So that that's one challenge that, you know, I would say because sometimes some persistent folks are calling and asking. And I honestly would tell you, I would love to talk with you more, but let us first kind of figure out, you know, where what are we going to do and before I then give you information that um doesn't serve us possibly. Um the other thing I I think is a challenge is as you know, when you get this amount of money, um there is a pressure to really really move really fast. Sometimes that leads us to this idea of going sole source. That is a challenge that I really have to push. Um, that if possible, I always want to compete things. So last year, procurement had an 83% competition dollar rate. It's really high. I mean, the goal is only 69%. But it is a challenge because a lot of times folks think, you know, rightfully so, there are times where doing it sole source is easier. But I always really try to say it's it's probably competitive procurements are better long term because you save money. That's when you get a lot of the innovation. You you get a lot of different um options that you can do. Just because something's competitive, if somebody has a great idea, you can then go sold towards because it may have not covered, kind of like what she was talking about with the unsolicited proposal. There's a lot of ways, but my point is competition rules, if if, but it is a challenge sometimes to uh um do. And another thing is resources. You know, resources it is an interesting one. And for me, a lesson learned was I like to resource with the best folks and not have them distracted. And so that's always tough, right? Um, because while I am concentrating on a one big beautiful bill, CBP also has a lot of other things going on. And so resourcing um is challenging. And then I'll I'll end with this, and and it's oversight. So remember, we're trying to do competitive, we're trying to do things fast, limited resources. But I believe you have to have oversight in real time. You do not want to wait until the end. And so unfortunately, that that means that you know you have to balance allowing your folks to go and run, but then maybe slowing them down a little bit to think, to ask those questions, to make sure they have the proper guidance, to make sure they're working with legal, to make sure they looked at policy, to talk through things like that. So that that's those are the types of challenges that when I think of OB3, how do you provide enough oversight without slowing the process down?