U.S. Rep. Elise M. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, signed onto a letter with her fellow Northern Border Caucus Co-Chair Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, supporting the addition of 1,846 new staff positions in Customs and Border Protection, including 1,200 officers.
The letter, addressed to the chair and ranking member of the House Committee on Appropriations, is the follow up to a letter the Northern Border Caucus sent last month requesting that CBP staff not be transferred from the northern border to the southern border. Wednesday’s letter expressed disappointment that the transfers continued regardless.
“Enactment of the funding in the FY2020 Homeland Security Appropriations bill for additional CBP Office of Field Operations (OFO) personnel will alleviate the need for these transfers in the long term and limit the excessive overtime that results from being understaffed,” the letter reads. “We are approaching the heaviest travel months of the year and inadequate staffing makes it increasingly more difficult for the agency to meet their core mission requirements.”
The current funding bill includes $151 million for the proposed 1,846 new staffers, $91 million of which is for officers. The White House proposed budget included just 267 new positions, according to the news release.
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© 2019 Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, N.Y.)
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