$225M granted for more CBP officers

Two Texas Congressional members say the just-passed federal budget bill will send more funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which will hire more officers.

The CBP will receive more than $225 million to hire 2,000 additional officers, said Congressman Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and John Carter, R-Round Rock.

This funds amount to the largest increase in CBP officers that Congress has funded at any particular time, Cuellar said.

“This will allow us to help shorten down the lines at our borders so that we don’t have people waiting or truckers waiting or vehicles waiting on the bridges, waiting to cross so this is very good news,” Cuellar said. “It doesn’t solve all the problems, but when you add 700 personnel this year and the other 1,300, which is a total of 2,000, this will be the largest increase of CBP officers.”

The Fiscal Year 2014 Appropriations Bill — which includes the funding for the new officers — was passed by both the House and Senate and President Barack Obama signed it into law Friday.

Officials said the additional officers will help increase the flow of traffic across the international bridges, which have been a concern of motorists and people crossing the bridges daily.

The CBP website counts 328 ports of entry throughout the United States.

“I am really excited about this because this is really good news as trade is increasing between the U.S. and Mexico at $1.3 billion of trade every day,” Cuellar said. “You add new CBP officers — and if they use these people right — they should have more lanes open and they should have more personnel where they can move the trade and the tourism a lot faster.”

CBP’s website reports 21,790 CBP officers and 2,366 agriculture specialists. It is unknown how many of them are stationed in Texas.

“The additional 2,000 CBP officers will enable us to safely increase the flow of commerce coming in and out of the United States,” Carter said. “We must decrease the unacceptable delays that many of our Texas ports have been experiencing for years, which has hindered trade and job growth.”

Authorities have not disclosed how the 2,000 officers will be distributed across the 328 ports of entry. Information should be available next week.

“They already have an idea as to where they will distribute the people, the first 700 and then the other 1,300. I should be getting a report hopefully by next week,” Cuellar said.

Both the House and the Senate have been working on the funding aspect for a while, and this is the first time they focused on hiring more CBP officers instead U.S. Border Patrol agents, officials said.

“In Appropriations, they finally listened to the message. More men and women in blue instead of just emphasizing the green,” Cuellar said, referencing how Customs and Border Protection officers wear blue uniforms while Border Patrol agents wear green.

“This is one of the pictures that show if Democrats and Republicans want to work together, we can get things done,” Cuellar said.