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![handle is hein.cbhear/fdsysagoq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUT-ENTICATED
US. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2014
U.S. SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,
Washington, DC.
NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESS
[The following testimony was received by the Subcommittee on
Homeland Security for inclusion in the record. The submitted ma-
terial relates to the fiscal year 2014 budget request for programs
within the subcommittee's jurisdiction.]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
Chairman Landrieu, Ranking Member Coats, distinguished members of the sub-
committee; thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony. As president of
the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), I have the honor of leading a
union that represents over 24,000 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and
trade enforcement specialists who are stationed at 331 land, sea and air ports of
entry (POEs) across the United States.
NTEU applauds the administration's fiscal year 2014 budget that recognizes that
there is no greater roadblock to legitimate trade and travel efficiency than the lack
of sufficient staff at the ports. Understaffed ports lead to long delays in our commer-
cial lanes as cargo waits to enter U.S. commerce. NTEU strongly supports the fiscal
year 2014 budget request for a total of 3,477 new CBP officer hires at the air, sea
and land ports of entry-1,600 paid for by an increase of $210.1 million in fiscal
year 2014 funding and 1,877 paid for by an increase in customs and immigration
user fees that have not been increased since 2001.
For years, NTEU has maintained that delays at the ports result in real losses to
the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, more than 50
million Americans work for companies that engage in international trade and, ac-
cording to a recent University of Southern California study, The Impact on the
Economy of Changes in Wait Times at the Ports of Entry, dated April 4, 2013, for
every 1,000 CBP officers added, the United States can increase its gross domestic
product by $2 billion. If Congress is serious about job creation, then Congress should
support enhancing U.S. trade and travel by mitigating wait times at the ports and
enhancing trade enforcement by increasing CBP security and commercial operations
staffing at the air, sea, and land ports of entry and increase the CBP appropriation
to the level requested in the administration's fiscal year 2014 budget submission.
NTEU was heartened to see that there was no decrease in CBP officer overtime
funding as there has been in previous budget submissions. Overtime is essential
when CBP officer staffing levels are insufficient to ensure that inspectional duties
can be fulfilled, that officers have sufficient back-up and that wait times are miti-
gated. In CBP's own words, Overtime allows OFO to schedule its personnel to cover
key shifts with a smaller total personnel number. This is one reason that Congress
authorized a dedicated funding source to pay for overtime-customs user fees, pur-
suant to title 19, section 58c(f) of the U.S. Code.
NTEU strongly supports the increase of the immigration and customs user fees
by $2 each to fund the hiring of an additional of 1,877 CBP officers. CBP collects
user fees to recover certain costs incurred for processing, among other things, air
and sea passengers, and various private and commercial land, sea, air, and rail car-
riers and shipments. The source of these user fees are commercial vessels, commer-
cial vehicles, rail cars, private aircraft, private vessels, air passengers, sea pas-
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