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Washington, D.C.—In reauthorizing the Customs trade functions within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Congress has the opportunity “to reestablish a productive balance between trade security and trade facilitation,” the leader of the union representing more than 14,000 CBP employees told a key House subcommittee today.

In testimony before the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said the union “is deeply concerned with the lack of resources, both in dollars and manpower, devoted to the facilitation and operations aspects of CBP’s trade functions.”

Continuing staffing shortages in commercial operations personnel, the NTEU leader said, have driven many of the experienced professionals “who make the system work” to leave or retire. Moreover, she said, 25 percent of import specialists either will retire or reach retirement eligibility within the next five years.

CBP trade personnel—including import specialists, entry specialists, trade compliance employees and others—play key roles in the $1.3 trillion worth of trade that is an essential aspect of the U.S. economy.

They are widely-respected throughout the business community as experts not only on U.S. trade laws, but on a wide range of products as well. Among many duties, they classify and appraise imports and determine what products may enter the country under public health, safety, intellectual property and trade laws. They also play important roles in criminal enforcement team investigations of smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting.

In addressing a variety of CBP issues, including budget authorizations, President Kelley noted the serious decline in the number of import specialists employed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In 2001 the Customs Service had 1,080 import specialists. Despite a prohibition in the Homeland Security Act mandating that the level stay the same, DHS has allowed the number of import specialists to decline to only 870 nationwide.

On related matters, the NTEU leader questioned the wisdom of a CBP review of the import specialist position which could result in having them perform the physical verification of cargo in the nation’s 317 ports of entry. “They do not have the resources or training to do the physical cargo inspections that are currently tasked to CBP Officers,” she said, raising the issue of whether such a shift would “further dilute the trade and revenue functions” at CBP—and possibly the security function as well.

President Kelley also urged Congress to review the grade level of journeyman in the import specialist function; it has remained at a GS-11, despite the fact that “most import specialists across the country regularly perform higher-grade work in the course of their daily duties,” she said.

The position, Kelley said, has evolved from one that was transaction-based to one that is now account-based. “This transition requires more specialized knowledge and experience of particular industries, such as agriculture, automotive, communications, textile and steel to properly enforce the complex trade laws accompanying each industry,” the union president added.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 federal workers in 30 agencies and departments.