[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 97 (Wednesday, June 7, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3329-S3330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FLAKE (for himself and Ms. Heitkamp):
  S. 1305. A bill to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection with 
adequate flexibility in its employment authorities; to the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the Customs 
and Border Protection Hiring and Retention Act, or CBP HiRe Act.
  In recent years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, has had 
a lot of trouble recruiting, hiring, and retaining personnel to 
adequately staff the border and our ports of entry. Today, CBP is 
nearly 1,000 officers below the mandated staffing levels. The Border 
Patrol, whose duty it is to secure 6,000 miles of borderlands, suffers 
from a shortage of more than 1,800 agents. These shortages persist, 
despite ample backing and funding from Congress and the threat they 
pose to both national security and trade-reliant communities and 
economies, particularly in my State of Arizona. This has been 
frustrating for border communities across the country, but it is 
especially problematic for Arizona, a State that depends on both border 
security and a lot of cross-border trade.
  For example, the Nogales port of entry in Southern Arizona is one of 
the busiest ports in the United States. It processes approximately $2.5 
billion worth of produce each year. Arizona alone does about $15 
billion in trade with Mexico alone, every year. Mexican shoppers spend 
about $8 million in stores in Arizona every day.
  However, the port currently is suffering from a 23-percent shortage 
of CBP officers. Our ports cannot effectively and efficiently 
facilitate the flow of commerce across the border without adequate 
staffing.
  One of the biggest challenges in both retaining and hiring new 
officers and agents for frontline positions has been the remoteness of 
CBP installations. CBP officers and border agents are often stationed 
in geographically remote and isolated locations. This likely 
contributes to the fact that, of those leaving the agency, nearly 30 
percent of Border Patrol agents and over 10 percent of CBP officers are 
lost to other agencies.
  Massive staffing shortages aside, CBP is barely able to hire fast 
enough to fill the jobs left by departing agents and officers. So we 
have great needs that are not being filled, but we also have attrition 
we simply can't replace. In fact, CBP hires only 1 out of every 64 
applicants for officer positions, and 1 out of every 113 applicants for 
Border Patrol agent positions. This means that less than 2 percent of 
applicants manage to get through CBP's hiring process. The situation at 
CBP today is simply unsustainable.
  Congress can't sit idly by as slow hiring rates and accelerating 
attrition threaten the security of our borders and the underpinnings of 
our economy. To that end, I am pleased to introduce my CBP HiRe Act 
with Senator

[[Page S3330]]

Heitkamp from North Dakota. This legislation would streamline the 
hiring process and allow the CBP to finally bring more agents and 
officers into frontline positions.
  Importantly, this bill gives CBP new tools to recruit and retain 
personnel in remote and hard-to-fill locations. This includes special 
salary rates and recruitment, relocation, and retention incentives.
  In addition, the bill will eliminate bureaucratic redtape by giving 
CBP the authority to use direct-hire authority and to expedite the 
hiring of qualified applicants. Right now, the situation is that they 
have to deal with other Federal agencies and get virtually every 
incentive and program they want to approve and need to approve to hire 
more officers. They have to run it up the flagpole so many times with 
Federal agencies that it simply takes too long.
  Lastly, the bill prevents CBP from disclosing an applicant's 
polygraph results with another Federal agency or non-Federal employer. 
Challenges relating to the administering of the polygraph have resulted 
in approximately 65 percent of the individuals failing the test.
  Think about that. People who are in another law enforcement position, 
even those who have taken a polygraph before just a year or two prior--
many of them fear that a false positive on a polygraph exam might 
impact their ability to move to another Federal agency if that is 
disclosed. If you have a polygraph, which can't be used in courts of 
law because it is not perfect or nowhere near perfect, then Federal 
agencies shouldn't be able to forward that to other Federal agencies. 
It acts as a big disincentive for people to apply for these positions 
because a false positive on a polygraph exam might imperil their 
chances to work for another Federal agency or to work in law 
enforcement later in their career. This also creates a disincentive, as 
I mentioned, for individuals to want to be hired by CBP.
  In Arizona, safety and prosperity are inextricably linked to CBP's 
ability to secure the border and facilitate trade. The CBP HiRe Act 
will give CBP the tools and flexibility necessary to accomplish these 
missions.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan solution, and I look 
forward to seeing it move through the Senate without delay.
                                 ______