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Washington, D.C.—Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needs more people and resources to better fulfill its trade mission, the head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told the Senate Finance Committee today. 

“NTEU is deeply concerned with the lack of resources, both in dollars and manpower, being devoted to CBP’s trade functions,” NTEU National President Tony Reardon said in submitted testimony for the committee’s CBP oversight hearing. “Lack of sufficient focus and resources not only costs the U.S. Treasury in terms of customs duties and revenue loss, but also costs American companies in terms of lost business to unlawful imports.”

Behind taxes, Customs duties and fees form the second biggest source of federal revenues, generating more than $46 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. But CBP is struggling to collect more of that revenue. Chronic staffing shortages, inequitable compensation and “lack of mission focus” are big reasons why experienced CBP commercial operations professionals are quitting or preparing to leave, Reardon said. 

Unless Congress steps up, CBP will have even bigger problems in the future. A quarter of the agency’s import specialists will retire or become eligible to do so over the next few years, the NTEU leader said. 

As of January 2016, CBP had 2,463 employees in revenue occupations—214 short of the level Congress authorized for that staffing category. Some key positions have never been adequately staffed from the start, despite the rapid increase in trade volumes. For instance, there were 984 import specialists when CBP was created in March 2003, but the agency had only 935 people in that position this past January, Reardon noted.

Import specialists and other CBP employees whose mission is to facilitate trade and enforce trade and security laws do critically important work. They stop illegal transshipments; collect import duties and make sure importers comply with all applicable laws, regulations, quotas, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) requirements and intellectual property provisions. 

“In effect, there has been a CBP trade staffing freeze at March 2003 levels and, as a result, CBP’s revenue functions are suffering,” the NTEU leader stated.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including about 25,000 CBP employees.