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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today called on a key House committee to approve a range of measures that would go a long way toward ensuring the success of the critical mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In a letter to members of the House Homeland Security Committee, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley noted the work of Committee Chairman Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on H.R. 4312, the Border Security and Terrorism Protection Act of 2005. The bill is expected to be marked up tomorrow.

In particular, she called Rep. King’s action to include a provision calling for an in-depth study of the impact of the ‘One Face at the Border’ initiative by DHS’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) a “good first step.”

“Every CBP officer I speak with tells me that the ‘One Face at the Border’ initiative, as currently implemented, is a failure,” Kelley said, and has resulted in a loss of expertise, training and inspection coverage in a number of critical areas, including contraband enforcement teams. “The chairman is on the right track in calling for a review of this dysfunctional initiative,” she said.

The NTEU leader also welcomed provisions calling for increases in the number of inspection officers and canine detection teams at the nation’s more than 300 ports of entry, but noted that this personnel increase does not go far enough.

“NTEU believes that DHS will have to hire and train at least 2,000 additional CBP officers in the next three years to keep pace with staffing needs,” Kelley said.

Among other important matters, the NTEU president urged the committee to approve proposals to increase journeyman inspectors’ pay grade to 12 on the General Schedule; improve the existing foreign language award program; provide CBP officers with the law enforcement officer (LEO) status that has been denied them for so long; and correct “the egregious mistake” that for nearly three years has forced trainees at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia, to work a sixth—unpaid—day of training each week.

All of these additional provisions, she said, will both address low employee morale at CBP and help improve operations at the border.

“A totally demoralized staff asked to do job duties they are not trained in while ignoring job duties they are experts in, with benefits unequal to their counterparts in other agencies, and without adequate staffing resources is not the way to protect the national security,” President Kelley said.

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