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Washington, D.C.—The severe problem of inadequate staffing for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will only be heightened by sequestration, the head of the union representing tens of thousands of frontline security employees at the nation’s 329 air, sea and land ports of entry told a Senate committee today.

Sequestration has cut CBP salary and expense funding for this fiscal year by $512 million, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in submitted testimony.

The sequester also includes a significant cut in inspectional overtime at the nation’s air, land and sea ports of entry. Overtime is an essential function when staffing levels are insufficient—as they have been in CBP for some time—to ensure that inspectional duties can be accomplished; that CBP Officers have sufficient back-up; and that passenger and commercial traffic wait times are mitigated.

The continuing resolution (CR) funding the government for the remainder of this fiscal year kept sequestration in place but does provide some additional money for the CBP salaries and expense account. The CR, however, also included a mandate requiring the agency to maintain the same CBP Officer staffing level thus limiting its ability to use the resources to reduce furloughs for frontline employees. Prior to enactment of the CR, CBP was requiring all employees to be furloughed for up to 14 during the rest of this fiscal year. That would have resulted in a 10 percent pay cut for all employees.

“The initially-proposed furloughs would have exacerbated an already-unsustainable shortage of CBP inspection and enforcement personnel at international air, sea and land ports of entry,” President Kelley said. In light of the new funding bill, CBP is reevaluating previously-planned furloughs, and has postponed implementation of furloughs pending that re-examination.

Notwithstanding the result, Kelley told the committee, “there is no greater roadblock to legitimate trade and travel efficiency than the lack of sufficient staff at the ports of entry,” bringing with it a considerable economic cost. “Understaffed ports lead to long delays in our commercial lanes as cargo waits to enter U.S. commerce,” she added.

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