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Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today welcomed introduction of legislation by two senior members of Congress that would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to boost the number of its import specialists—who play key roles both in facilitating U.S. trade and helping secure the nation’s borders—by some 14 percent.

Legislation introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) calls for DHS to meet the congressional mandate contained in the 2002 Homeland Security Act (HSA) that the newly-established agency not reduce staffing levels or resources attributable to the trade-related functions performed by employees of the Customs Service.

Customs is one of the legacy agencies that make up DHS; it is now part of the agency’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

“NTEU has been working hard to make sure Congress and the public are aware that CBP has not been following the mandate of the Homeland Security Act with regard to import specialists,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “We are gratified that these two key legislators have taken steps advocated by NTEU to address this serious problem.”

Rep. Rangel is the Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee; Sen. Schumer is a member of the Senate Finance Committee and its subcommittee on trade.

Their bill would require DHS to employ at least the number of import specialists Customs employed in fiscal 2001—a total of 1,080. Since that time, the agency has allowed the number of import specialists to decline to only 948 nationwide in fiscal 2005, the two legislators said.

Import specialists are widely-respected throughout the business community as experts not only on U.S. trade law, but on a wide range of products as well. Their duties include classifying and appraising imports and determining what products may enter the country under public health, safety, intellectual property and trade laws. They also play key roles in criminal enforcement team investigations of smuggling, commercial fraud and counterfeiting.

In dollar terms, the economic value of U.S. trade tops more than $1.3 trillion annually.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including some 15,000 in CBP.