Thread: Furlough Reprieve at Customs and Border Protection?

Furlough Reprieve at Customs and Border Protection?

By Eric Katz
3:52 PM ET

Customs and Border Protection is “weighing its options” regarding the necessity of furloughs this fiscal year, according to union officials involved in negotiations. CBP had previously planned to furlough all 60,000 of its employees due to the across-the-board spending cuts from sequestration.

Shawn Moran, a spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council -- which represents U.S. Border Patrol agents -- said the union was told Thursday its members would not face furloughs, but the details are still being negotiated and nothing is final.

CBP gained flexibility in implementing sequestration from a stopgap spending bill President Obama signed into law Tuesday. The continuing resolution kept the across-the-board cuts in place, but provided extra funding to the Homeland Security Department -- CBP’s parent agency -- to ease the impact on border security.

A spokesman for CBP declined to comment on the status of negotiations or the possibility of eliminating furloughs, but said the agency is in the process of analyzing any changes in the new spending bill.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is working diligently to analyze the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill and sequestration impacts,” the spokesman said, “and is developing a plan to implement this budget in a way that minimizes the impact on operations and our workforce.”

Even if Border Patrol agents -- who originally faced 14 days of furloughs -- are not forced to take unpaid leave, CBP may still institute a freeze on overtime, which Moran called the officers’ “bread and butter.”

Moran said the union has been kept in the dark for much of the process and accused CBP of not “meeting its statutory and contractual obligation to bargain.” The CBP spokesman would not comment on anything involving negotiations.

Lawmakers have criticized DHS for not prioritizing its sequestration cuts.

“The Obama administration’s actions amount to nothing short of a calculated, willful neglect of what should be a president’s top priority: protecting the homeland and keeping Americans safe,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, said Wednesday, of plans to furlough CBP employees and cut their overtime. “The fact that the administration would needlessly jeopardize the safety of American citizens as part of a continued misinformation campaign surrounding the effects of sequestration is outrageous and reprehensible.”

CBP would be the most recent in a string of agencies to reduce original estimates of sequestration’s impact. DHS initially planned to furlough its 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees for seven days, but has since said the measure is not necessary. The Pentagon announced Wednesday it would furlough its civilian employees 14 days, rather than the 22 days originally scheduled, also citing flexibility from the new spending bill.

Furlough Reprieve at Customs and Border Protection? - Pay & Benefits - GovExec.com

By Jerry Seper
The Washington Times
Monday, April 1, 2013


Photo by: Ross D. Franklin
**FILE** Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector headquarters on Aug. 9, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. (Associated Press)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has postponed plans to furlough Border Patrol agents as a result of sequestration, which would have taken as many as 5,000 agents off the line, and also has delayed a proposed cut in overtime pay that would have cost each agent $7,000 a year.

“In light of the Fiscal Year 2013 Appropriations bill and sequestration impacts, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is re-evaluating previously planned furloughs and de-authorization of Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO) and will postpone implementation of both at this time,” said CBP spokesman Anthony Bucci in an email response.

“Although the budget reductions imposed by sequestration are significant, the bill’s provisions allow CBP to mitigate to some degree the impacts of the reduced budget on operations and on CBP’s workforce,” Mr. Bucci said.

CBP, he said, continues to assess the “exact impact” the legislation will have on “our operations and our workforce.”

The National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 nonsupervisory agents, offered cautious praise for the move, which it chalked up to public pressure but which it also warned could still be changed.

The council “sees this as a result of the public outcry to secure this nation’s borders and to fairly compensate Border Patrol agents,” it said in a statement. “While the situation appears better for Border Patrol agents, we have seen CBP subvert the intent of Congress before.”

CBP announced the furloughs and overtime cuts as part of the Congress-mandated sequestration. Furlough notices were sent to thousands of CBP personnel, including Border Patrol agents, because of required budget cuts. The agents would have been mandated to have a furlough day each pay period resulting in a cumulative loss of 5,000 agents in the field. Beginning in mid-April, the agents each would have lost 14 workdays through September.

On March 2, the Border Patrol’s normal 10-hour work shifts were ordered cut to eight hours. The cuts were necessary, CBP officials said, to account for $754 million in mandated spending reductions for the agency after President Obama and Congress failed to reach an agreement on the budget to prevent sequestration.

Border Patrol agents normally work 10-hour days, part of a program known as “administratively uncontrolled overtime.” It is how the agents were hired, most of whom signed on as part of a recruitment drive that promised an “excellent opportunity for overtime pay.”

Uncontrolled overtime covers employees in positions that require substantial amounts of irregular, unscheduled overtime work that cannot be controlled administratively, with the employee generally being responsible for recognizing, without supervision, circumstances that require him to remain on duty.

Under sequestration, the elimination of overtime pay could cost field agents an average of $7,000 a year and spark what some say could be an exodus of veteran agents to other agencies.

While CBP proposed overtime cuts totaling $285 million, Border Patrol agents noted that their share of that amount was $248 million. Cuts for two other CBP agencies were listed at $35 million for the Office of Field Operations and $2 million for the Office of Air and Marine. The National Border Patrol Council said there was an “enormous disparity” in the proposed cuts.

While the Border Patrol and the Office of Field Operations have about the same number of people, the patrol council said the Office of Field Operations is mandated to make up 6.4 percent of the budget cut while the Border Patrol “appears to be picking up the lion’s share of the tab” with 87 percent of the proposed cuts.

“Every day, Border Patrol agents along America’s border put their lives on the line to keep our nation safe,” said Chris Bauder, National Border Patrol Council president. “They deserve the pay they receive, and any reduction is an insult to the efforts and sacrifices of the men and women of the Border Patrol.”

Border Patrol agents dodge sequestration, avoid furloughs, pay cuts - Washington Times

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