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Washington, D.C.—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must be provided with the funding necessary to boost personnel to levels recommended by the agency’s own staffing model, the leader of the union representing thousands of homeland security employees said in testimony submitted yesterday to a key House appropriations subcommittee.

National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley urged the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee to provide for increased CBP staffing and resources. That subcommittee today is hearing testimony from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff on the administration’s fiscal year 2009 budget request; CBP is a unit of DHS.

In her testimony, Kelley pointed out that CBP’s own resource allocation model confirms the agency’s need to hire up to 4,000 more CBP Officers (CBPOs). Despite recognition of the need for additional staff, the White House’s fiscal 2009 funding request would provide for only 539 additional frontline CBPOs—fewer than two at each of the nation’s 327 air, sea and land ports of entry.

“The thousands of men and women who keep our country free from terrorism and our economy safe from illegal trade deserve to be able to do their jobs effectively and efficiently,” President Kelley said. “For the sake of the nation’s security, the dangerous cycle of inadequate resources for CBP that has led to insufficient staffing agencywide has to end.”

In calling on subcommittee members to boost CBP staffing to meet the need, Kelley noted that insufficient personnel are a major factor in serious CBP morale problems, and in generating fatigue and related safety issues. These and other agency actions are causing CBP to lose personnel faster than it can hire replacements. The Government Accountability Office estimates that during 2007, an average of 52 CBPOs left the agency every two weeks, up from 34 such departures in 2005.

“The American public expects its borders and ports to be properly defended,” she said. “Congress must show the public that it is serious about protecting the homeland by fully funding the staffing needs of CBP.”

Last week, NTEU welcomed H.R. 5662, introduced by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), a measure that would authorize the hiring of an additional 5,000 CBPOs, as well as another 1,200 agriculture specialists and 350 new support employees.

President Kelley also called on Congress to put an end to the remnants of a failed personnel management experiment at the DHS. NTEU federal court victories prevented the labor relations segments of the rules from being adopted.

“Subjective pay systems that are not fair, credible and transparent undermine employee morale,” Kelley said. “And they put in serious jeopardy the agency’s ability to recruit and retain a workforce capable of accomplishing its critical day-to-day missions.”

In significant part due to NTEU’s efforts, the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill provided zero funding for implementation of a new DHS personnel management system; NTEU also played a key role in seeing that fiscal 2006 and 2007 funding levels for this misguided, regressive program were well below the administration’s budget requests.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including nearly 22,000 in CBP.