Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is urging a key Senate committee to prioritize funding that would ensure the adequate staffing of the trade enforcement workforce at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), warning that current personnel shortages are costing the U.S. Treasury billions of dollars in lost revenue.

In a letter sent today on the occasion of a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Trade Oversight to Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley asked them to bring funding for CBP’s trade compliance personnel in line with the agency’s own staffing model, which highlighted a need of more than 10,000 CBP employees to carry out all of its priority trade functions for 2008.

Currently, there are only about 8,200 employees in all the agency’s commercial trade operations, including CBP Officers (CBPOs) and Agriculture Specialists.

“When CBP was created, it was given a dual mission of not only safeguarding our nation’s borders and ports from terrorist attacks, but also the mission of regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. trade laws,” President Kelley said. “Customs revenues are the second largest source of federal revenues that are collected by the U.S. government. The committee should be concerned as to how much CBP trade enforcement staffing shortages cost in terms of revenue loss to the U.S. Treasury.”

Kelley, who has consistently testified before Congress on the clear need to boost CBPO staffing at all 327 ports of entry, also criticized the proposed FY 2009 White House budget for not including any new funding to increase the number of employees responsible for CBP’s priority trade mission and customs revenue function.

The numbers tell the story, she said. In 2005, CBP processed 29 million trade entries and collected $31.4 billion in revenue. In 2009, the estimated revenue collected is projected to be $29 billion—a drop of over $2 billion in collected revenue.

“Trade volume is growing exponentially, while CBP trade enforcement staffing remains stagnant,” Kelley said. “According to a GAO report on customs revenue, CBP collected nearly $30 billion customs duties in FY 2006, but concluded that CBP’s shift in mission contributed to reduced focus and resources devoted to customs revenue functions.”

CBP trade compliance personnel help make up our nation’s first line of defense in the wars on terrorism and drugs. They enforce over 400 U.S. trade and tariff laws and regulations, as well as work to stem the flow of illegal contraband including child pornography, illegal arms and laundered money.