Today, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in support of the Anti-Border Corruption Reauthorization Act of 2017, a bipartisan bill he is co-sponsoring to solve the severe staffing shortage faced by Customs and Border Protection.

“Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is facing a staffing deficit of more than 3,000 positions,” said Congressman Henry Cuellar. “That puts our homeland security at risk. One reason for this dangerous shortage: applicants for every single law enforcement position must take a polygraph examination. Even current and former law enforcement and military members with Secret and Top Secret security clearances, must go through this laborious and failure-prone process.

The Anti-Border Corruption Reauthorization Act of 2017 would streamline the hiring process for certain current ‘cleared’ federal employees, law enforcement, or military members to join CBP after their background check, without having to go through a redundant polygraph. This is a common-sense measure to solve an obvious problem, make a government procedure more efficient, and secure our homeland.”

Watch the video of his floor speech: https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4672597/anti-border-corruption-reauthorization-act-2017

Congresswoman Martha McSally (AZ-02) introduced the legislation with bipartisan support from Congressman Cuellar. It builds on the work Congressman Cuellar did with Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman John Carter. Chairman Carter and Congressman Cuellar included language in the Omnibus Appropriations bill passed earlier this month, directing the Department of Homeland Security to take a number of steps to reevaluate their polygraph and hiring procedures.