Proposals to Hire 500 CBP Officers Annually Introduced in Congress

CBP has consistently failed to hire mandated levels of trade-related staff, and bills recently introduced in the House and Senate aim to remedy the problem. Both bills only have Democratic sponsors. The bills propose hiring 500 new CBP officers and 100 new agricultural officers each year until the staffing shortage is resolved. The Senate bill says it would cost $69.5 million in each fiscal year from 2018 to 2024. The House version was released Feb. 6. The Government Accountability Office wrote last year that import specialists, customs auditors, national import specialists and drawback specialists have been below the mandated levels in at least three years. More broadly, the agency should have at least 8,658 CBP officers, the report said, and it had 6,889 in October 2014, the report said (See 1706130015). "Staffing shortfalls can impact CBP's ability to enforce trade effectively, for example, by leading to reduced compliance audits and decreased cargo inspections, according to CBP officials," the report said. "CBP cited several challenges to filling staffing gaps, including that hiring for trade positions is not an agency-wide priority."