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Washington, D.C.—Travel and tourism are vital drivers of economic growth, but long lines caused by inadequate staffing at ports of entry are discouraging international travelers from visiting the United States, the leader of the union representing frontline homeland security employees said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) emphasized that costly economic connection in testimony submitted to a Senate subcommittee reviewing the state of U.S. travel and tourism.

“NTEU applauds Congress for recognizing that there is no greater roadblock to legitimate trade and travel efficiency than the lack of sufficient staff at the ports,” Kelley said. She cited a recent travel association survey showing that eliminating long lines and wait times at the ports of entry would make the U.S. a more attractive destination.

She pointed to the survey’s results showing that among respondents who have never come to the U.S., 40 percent said they would consider a visit if they knew they could count on timely entry processing.

The NTEU leader noted congressional action earlier this year in approving funding for an additional 2,000 CBP Officers by the end of fiscal 2015. At the same time, she repeated her call—supported by the White House budget proposal—for a modest increase in customs and immigration user fees to fund additional CBP Officers.

These fees, which have not been raised in a number of years, are used to recover certain CBP costs incurred in processing air and sea passengers as well as a wide range of private and commercial land, sea, air and rail carriers and shipments. However, the fees fall far short of covering the actual costs.

Earlier this week, the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee included language in its fiscal 2015 measure to boost by $2 the immigration user fee to fund the hiring of an additional 1,000 CBP Officers at the air and sea ports.

“If this committee and Congress are serious about job creation and meeting its goal to attract 100 million travelers annually,” she said, “then you should support the subcommittee bill language that increases the immigration user fee and enactment of legislation that increases Customs user fees by $2, and adjust both fees annually to inflation.”

On a closely-related matter, President Kelley also called on the subcommittee to support the full funding at $19 million in user fees for the NTEU-negotiated Foreign Language Awards Program (FLAP). CBP proposed reducing funding for this 21-year successful program to $3 million in fiscal 2015—a cut of 84 percent.

The program provides a cash incentive to employees at ports of entry who speak and use foreign language skills on the job if they use them for at least 10 percent of their duties and pass competency tests.

With some 20 languages covered by the program, “FLAP clearly serves to improve CBP’s efficiency,” Kelley said. “Foreign travelers are aided by having someone at a port of entry who speaks their language. It makes the U.S. a more welcoming place when foreign travelers find CBP Officers can communicate in their language, and it helps expedite traveler processing to reduce wait times.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including more than 24,000 in CBP.