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Washington, D.C.—Long delays caused by inadequate staffing at U.S. ports of entry are extraordinarily costly to the American economy, and are projected to result in lost output of more than $86 billion over the next 10 years, the head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a House subcommittee today.

In testimony submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said: “There is perhaps no greater roadblock to trade and travel efficiency than the lack of sufficient staff at the ports. Understaffed ports lead to long delays in our commercial lanes as cargo waits to enter U.S. commerce.”

A government report has projected that, by 2017, average wait times at ports of entry could rise to nearly one hour and forty minutes, which would cost the U.S. economy annually more than 54,000 jobs, $12 billion in output, $3 billion in wages and $1.2 billion in tax revenue. The cumulative loss in output due to border delays over the next decade is estimated by the Commerce Department to be $86 billion, Kelley said.

The NTEU leader expressed disappointment that the White House budget blueprint for fiscal 2013 provides funding only to maintain the current number of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers, Agriculture Specialists and CBP trade personnel “despite independent studies that state that CBP is understaffed at ports of entry by thousands of Officers” nationwide.

CBP’s dual missions are to safeguard the nation’s borders and ports, and to regulate and facilitate international trade. As part of that mission, it collects import duties and fees and enforces hundreds of U.S. trade laws; CBP is the second-largest source of revenue for the Treasury, after only the Internal Revenue Service. In 2005, CBP processed 29 million trade entries and collected $31.4 billion in revenue. By 2009, however, CBP revenue collections had fallen to $29 billion.

Since CBP was created in March 2003 as part of the Department of Homeland Security, there has been no increase in CBP trade enforcement and compliance personnel. In effect, Kelley told the House members, “There has been a CBP trade staffing freeze at March 2003 levels and, as a result, CBP’s revenue function has suffered.”

President Kelley urged the committee to increase funding to hire additional trade enforcement and compliance personnel, including Import Specialists, at ports of entry to enhance revenue collection.

NTEU is the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including more than 24,000 in CBP.