House Passes Bill for Customs Staffing

The House passed a bill Thursday to create a new position within U.S. Customs and Border Protection that will "streamline operations to more effectively respond to global trade challenges and enforce our trade laws."

H.R. 5862 would authorize Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to consolidate, reorganize, and modify its organizational structure related to customs revenue, including establishing or modifying existing job grades, titles, or classifications for personnel

For example, this bill authorizes CBP to add functions to existing positions that perform these revenue functions. CBP may also establish new job series and grades for personnel that perform these functions.

The bill also modifies a provision that prohibits CBP from reducing the staffing level of certain revenue functions (e.g., import specialists, entry specialists, and customs auditors). Specifically, this bill relaxes this prohibition by allowing for reductions if the reduction will not result in a staffing level below the optimal level as determined in a specified resource allocation model. (Currently, CBP is required to report to Congress every two years the results of this model to determine the optimal staffing levels for carrying out CBP commercial operations.)

The bill also expands this staffing level reduction restriction to also apply to national account managers and international trade analysts.

H.R. 5862 – Legislation to Help Customs and Border Protection Enforce American Trade Laws
Introduced by Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), the bill creates a new Global Trade Specialist position at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

• This bill creates a Global Trade Specialist position at CBP "to ensure the agency is responding faster to combat trade cheats like China who try to exert an unfair economic advantage over American workers and undermine America’s trade laws."
• The Global Trade Specialist position will replace six narrowly-defined functions that currently exist within CBP in order to better utilize existing CBP personnel.
• "A lack of flexibility within CBP is impeding the agency’s ability to stop foreign bad actors from breaking America’s trade laws and harming American workers."

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing H.R. 5862 would cost $1 million over the 2024-2028 period. Any spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

In announcing the bill's passage, Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said "we are delivering win after win for working families. There is still more work to do to make a difference for workers, families, farmers, and small businesses."

Some wins remain elusive.  Later Thursday afternoon, Chairman Smith joined fewer than half of the Republican House caucus in funding the government for another six weeks, meaning the government remains without a budget halfway through the fiscal year.