Take Action! Email your members of Congress. You can make a difference!

Ask your Member of Congress to cosponsor H.R.4940 to authorize a CBP hiring surge at the ports of entry.

Tell your Senators to cosponsor S.2314, a bill to authorize a CBP officer hiring surge at the ports of entry.

NTEU strongly supports H.R. 4940, a bill introduced in the House last week authorizing the hiring of additional CBP (Office of Field Operations) OFO employees at the critically understaffed ports of entry.

Representative Filemon Vela (D-TX) introduced H.R. 4940, the Border and Port Security Act, a bill that would authorize the hiring of 500 additional CBP Officers, 100 Agriculture Specialists and requisite support staff annually until the staffing gaps in CBP’s various Workload Staffing Models are met. NTEU strongly supports H. R. 4940.

CBP has been chronically understaffed at the ports for years. In addition to 1,200 current vacancies in the CBP Officer workforce at the 328 ports of entry, the most recent results of CBP’s Workload Staff Model show a need for an additional 2,500 CBP Officers and 721 Agriculture Specialists through FY 2018.

In introducing this bill to authorize the hiring of 500 CBP Officers, 100 Agriculture Specialists and support staff to support these new hires until the staffing gap is addressed, Congress is finally starting to recognize the border security gap at the ports and the commercial value of fully staffing the ports of entry.

It is critical that Congress fund and hire additional CBP Officers and Agriculture Specialists to meet the hiring goals in CBP’s Workload Staffing Models. The Vela bill is a tremendously needed first step, and a welcomed development, to achieve this goal.

NTEU will also continue to work with Congress to fund additional CBP OFO new hires that are also needed to meet the hiring goal in their staffing models. To see what you can do, click here.