Treasury Union Advocates Ending CBP's One Face at the Border, Increasing CBP Staffing
On March 5, 2009, the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight held a hearing on "Putting People First: A Way Forward for the Homeland Security Workforce."
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The witnesses invited to appear at this hearing included representatives from the various labor organizations that represent the employees at the Department of Homeland Security.
The following are highlights of the testimony of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the organization that represents many of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees at DHS.
NTEU Recommends Ending CBP's "One Face at the Border" Initiative
NTEU opined that CBP has seen its "One Face at the Border" initiative as a "force multiplier" and as a means to increase management flexibility without increasing staffing levels.
(Under CBP's "One Face at the Border" initiative, a single CBP Officer works in both the cargo and passenger environments and carries out the functions previously performed by the following three inspectors: Customs Inspector, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Inspector, and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Inspector.)
According to NTEU, although CBP has stated that the ability to combine three inspectional disciplines and cross-train front line officers would allow it to more easily handle projected workload increases and stay within present budgeted levels, this has not been the case.
NTEU states that the knowledge and skills required to perform the expanded inspectional tasks under the "One Face at the Border" initiative have been diluted while at the same time the workload for the CBP Officer has been increased.
In addition, NTEU states that the CBP Officer is becoming a generalist, rotating from seaport cargo inspection to land port vehicle processing to airport passenger processing without ever developing the specialized skill set they had as legacy inspectors, and further undermining the nation's security.
As a result, NTEU recommends at the conclusion of its testimony that the "One Face at the Border" initiative be ended.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 11/03/03 news, 03110320, for BP summary on CBP's One Face at the Border initiative.)
NTEU Asks Committee to Scrutinize CBP's RAMs, Increase Trade Staffing
NTEU noted that CBP's 2007 Trade Resource Allocation Model (RAM) required by the Security and Accountabiity for Every (SAFE) Port Act indicates that CBP needs 1,100 Import Specialists on board by FY 2010 to meet its trade facilitation mission.
NTEU asked the Committee to carefully scrutinize the 2007 Trade RAM and a forthcoming 2009 RAM (also authorized by the SAFE Port Act) when determining CBP trade function funding needs.
NTEU also urges that Committee to ensure that CBP trade enforcement personnel is increased to staffing levels sufficient to ensure effective performance of customs revenue functions.
Hearing testimony available at http://homeland.house.gov/Hearings/index.asp?ID=174.