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Washington, D.C.—While disappointed that the House of Representatives voted not to allow consideration of an amendment that would have provided much-needed additional funding for the Customs Service, the leader of the union representing Customs employees said she will “press the Senate to do the right thing for this agency and the nation.”

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) was reacting to today’s 216 to 211 vote by the full House supporting action by the House Rules Committee which ruled out of order a proposed amendment by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) that would have provided funds to hire additional Customs officers on the nation’s northern border.

“Both the House and Senate recognized in their anti-terrorism bills that Customs must have additional personnel along the northern border, calling for a tripling of such of the workforce there,” Kelley said, “yet the House Republican leadership passed up under pressure from the administration the chance to provide some of the money required for this vital step.”

The Obey amendment, which the Rules Committee ruled out of order in debate last night on procedures for considering legislation to allocate $20 billion in emergency spending, would have boosted the amount for Customs to $488 million, up from the $301.8 million provided by the House Appropriations Committee. That would have allowed the agency to hire an additional 790 officers along the northern border and another 840 for cargo inspections across the country.

The $301.8 million allocation by the House Appropriations Committee was an improvement over the “meager” proposal by the administration to allocate only $114.2 million in emergency spending for Customs, NTEU President Kelley said.

“The administration’s proposal was unrealistic in terms of the needs of this agency, which is so critical to achieving the degree of homeland security that the American people want and expect,” Kelley said, “and while the House Appropriations Committee allocation was a step in the right direction, it, too, falls short of what is needed.

“That’s why the additional funding provided by the Obey amendment is so important, and why NTEU will continue to press this issue in the Senate,” she added.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments, including some 12,000 in the Customs—more than 7,000 of whom work on the front lines of the battle against terrorism at the nation’s air, land and seaports.