A bill just introduced in the House calls for an additional 5,000 Customs and Border Protection officers over five years, 350 additional support personnel, and a base level of 1,200 agriculture specialists at CBP.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, who is sponsoring the bill, asked the House Homeland Security Committee to hold a hearing on the legislation in his El Paso, Texas district, where there is a large border crossing with infamous turnover, hiring difficulties and staff shortages.
The White House has proposed $500 million for an increase of 539 CBP officers and 2,200 Border Patrol agents for fiscal 2009.
However, the additional CBP officers are short of the agency’s staffing model, and there appears to be congressional support for larger increases. A general consensus emerged at the November Senate hearing that thousands more officers are needed.
The bill also seeks $5 billion over five years for GSA to work with CBP to improve border-crossing infrastructure.
