Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing some 12,000 Customs Service employees welcomed supplemental funding for the Customs Service, but said the additional money “still falls short” of that needed to provide the staffing that will allow the agency to meet its critical homeland security responsibilities.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union [NTEU] said flatly: “New inspectors are needed now.”

Kelley acknowledged inclusion of an additional $392 million for Customs in the 2002 Defense Authorization Bill, including $245 million for personnel and technology. But she said, in total, resources directed to Customs are insufficient to allow it to meet the increased personnel goals set by Congress in passing the anti-terrorism Patriot Act, and are “far short” of funding personnel needs outlined in the agency’s own Resource Allocation Model (RAM), a study conducted a year ago.

The Patriot Act calls for a tripling, from 1,773 to 5,319, of Customs personnel along the U.S. northern border; Customs’ RAM outlined the need for an additional 14,000 employees to meet its varied missions—and that was before the heightened state of national security after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter to Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner, Kelley said “it is imperative that the comprehensive assessment plan that Customs is required to submit to Congress to receive the $245 million of the total $392 million that is earmarked for personnel and technology, provides for hiring the maximum number of Customs inspectors as soon as possible.”

After congressional action on emergency spending for anti-terrorism efforts and with passage of the 2002 Treasury Appropriations Bill, Kelley said Customs is in position to hire about 1,500 new employees, including between 800 and 900 inspectors whose primary duties focus on border control work. Most of these likely would be assigned to the nation’s northern border, she said.

In her letter to Commission Bonner, the NTEU president emphasized that Customs inspectors around the country have been working “grueling overtime hours” as well as working temporary duty assignments far from their homes.

“Customs employees want to do a good job,” the NTEU leader said. “The administration, the Congress and their agency owe it to them to provide them with the funding and resources they need.”

As part of the $245 million in supplemental funding for hiring and technology for both the northern border and the nation’s seaports, $10 million is earmarked for spending on the U.S. southwest border. The administration’s request for Customs in anti-terrorism spending was $107 million, which included no funds for additional personnel.

NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments, including some 12,000 in Customs—some 7,000 of whom are inspectors and canine enforcement officers.