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Washington, D.C.— America’s security would be better served with adequate funding for border security than with a massive reorganization, said National Treasury Employees Union National President Colleen M. Kelley, following media reports of President Bush’s intent to call on Congress to create a new cabinet-level agency to oversee border and transportation security.

“A new cabinet-level agency is no substitute for the funding and personnel needed at the U.S. Customs Service and other border agencies,” said Kelley. “The administration says there will be no additional staffing or increased funding associated with this proposal. This is bad news for the American public. The Customs Service by its own account needed an additional 14,000 employees to successfully accomplish its mission before September 11.”

Representing some 12,000 Customs Service employees, who would be reportedly realigned into the proposed new homeland security agency, the union leader said Customs inspectors, canine enforcement officers and import specialists have been working on the highest alert level since September 11.

“Short staffed before September 11, the Customs Service is now stretched beyond the limit. Employees are working 12- and 16- hour shifts. Hundreds are being shifted to the northern border and away from airports, seaports and border crossings that are already critically understaffed. Making our borders more secure, giving the Customs Service the personnel and funding it critically needs should be the top priority,” said Kelley.

Kelley said the administration has failed to request additional funding for the Customs Service in recent security-related supplemental funding requests to Congress, despite a law (Patriot Act) enacted last year authorizing a tripling of Customs personnel on the northern border.

“The administration has had adequate opportunity to strengthen border security. It does not require the creation of a new cabinet-level agency and a massive realignment that could well serve to be a distraction to those securing America’s borders, airports and seaports. The timing of the announcement, on the day Congress begins taking a hard look at the administration’s management of intelligence gathering and analysis, could be viewed with some concern that this has more to do with media coverage and winning the public relations war, instead of waging a meaningful and credible war on terrorism at our nation’s borders, airports and seaports,” said Kelley.

Employees of the U.S. Customs Service serve as the first line of defense against terrorism and illegal drugs. In addition, the agency facilitates tourism and trade, generating some $22.1 billion in trade revenues each year.