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Washington, D.C. —The leader of the union representing tens of thousands of frontline homeland security employees said today significant increases in staffing at the nation’s 331 land, air and sea ports of entry are critical to helping secure the nation’s borders and curtail the flow of illegal money, guns and drugs.

“Preventing the flow of arms, drugs, other contraband, pirated merchandise, undeclared cash and invasive agricultural items while at the same time facilitating trade and the legal movement of people as efficiently as possible is a daily challenge for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers and Agriculture Specialists,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National T:reasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Insufficient staffing at border crossing points contributes to such serious issues as employee fatigue and lowered morale, and heightens dangers from the lack of back-up support when CBP Officers inspect travelers and commercial traffic, she said.

“NTEU believes there is no way you can speed up the inspection process in which CBP Officers are currently conducting primary inspections in 30 to 40 seconds without increasing staffing,” Kelley said.

NTEU made its recommendation in testimony submitted to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, which conducted a hearing on the effective use of resources by CBP.

President Kelley called on CBP to fully staff to capacity all existing travel lanes and booths at ports of entry, and urged Congress to require the agency to submit yearly a workplace staffing model to include optimal staffing requirements for each port of entry in order to fully staff all travel lanes and reduce commercial and passenger wait times.

President Kelley noted that in fiscal 2010, CBP Officers and Agriculture Specialists at ports of entry inspected 352 million travelers and nearly 106 million cars, truck, buses, trains, vessels and aircraft.

To help illustrate the problem caused by lack of personnel, she told the subcommittee inadequate staffing has reduced the number of CBP Officers available to conduct more in-depth secondary inspections; in the past, there were three inspectors in secondary processing for every one inspector in primary processing. “Now, there is a one-to-one ratio,” she said.

The NTEU leader emphasized that while the administration’s fiscal 2012 budget does request funding for an additional 300 CBP Officer positions compared to fiscal 2010, that would still leave the total 108 Officers below the fiscal 2009 level. The proposed budget request also falls short in funding for Agriculture Specialists, NTEU believes.

She also said NTEU finds it of particular concern that the budget proposes a decrease of $20 million in dedicated funding for inspectional overtime. Such overtime “is essential when staffing levels are low to ensure that inspectional duties can be fulfilled, (that) Officers have sufficient back-up and (that) wait times are mitigated,” she said.

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