Lawmakers Skeptical of CBP's Ability to Hire
Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., expressed doubt during a March 8 hearing that CBP could hire the 2,000 additional CBP officers programmed in the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2017 budget. CBP has fallen short of employment goals since at least fiscal 2014, she said. CBP’s budget for that year called for funding to hire the same number of officers, which the agency has been unable to do.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
During that hearing, CBP Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that agency officials believe “by the end of the year,” they’ll be within “a few hundred” officers of their hiring target, noting that CBP worked with the Office on Management and Budget and with Congressional staff to develop a realistic hiring estimate. “I guess I would say as much as I appreciate and support the efforts underway, I just still have reservations about whether you're going to reach the numbers,” Shaheen replied. CBP is asking for $11.9 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2017, about $600 million more than the fiscal 2016-distributed amount.
Subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D., during the hearing voiced support for CBP’s veteran hiring initiative, and encouraged McAleenan to continue the effort. One illustration of the hiring challenges faced by CBP is occurring in northeastern Montana at the Raymond Canadian border crossing. DHS has proposed to turn the 24-hour crossing into an 18-hour crossing. Subcommittee member Jon Tester, D-Mont., expressed concern that, the proposal might not save money as it was intended to, noting an effort by the U.S. Postal Service with similar rationale ended up costing $66 million. He added that northern ports of entry are important to retain Canada as the No. 1 U.S. trading partner. “You're not going to hire someone from Miami and put them on the northern border and expect them to stay there,” Tester said during the hearing. “But as I told [Homeland Security Secretary] Jeh Johnson this morning, if you at least make an attempt in rural areas…you might be able to get folks that really want that job. These are good jobs.”
ACE Implementation
During the hearing, McAleenan also told senators that implementation of the automated control environment (ACE) is making “tremendous progress,” as core technology nears completion and CBP works to get all involved parties into the single-window system by the end of 2016. “In FY 2017 ACE will be operating at full operational capacity, thereby requiring less overall sustainment costs for the program,” McAleenan stated in prepared remarks. In that submitted testimony, McAleenan also highlighted that CBP in fiscal 2015 collected $1.7 billion in cash deposits to secure antidumping duties, and that the agency this calendar year plans to start a third pre-inspection program pilot, in San Jeronimo, Mexico.