Authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Consolidate, Modify, or Reorganize Customs Revenue Functions

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5862, the Global Trade Specialist Act. It is legislation that I am proud to have co-led with my friend and fellow Californian, Representative Steel.

It is a bill that would allow Customs and Border Protection to fulfill the position of global trade specialist, which would help facilitate and further our Nation's trade by giving CBP the flexibility to flow with the future of international trade.

As we know well, Customs and Border Protection has an important role to play when it comes to supporting trade. That is why CBP should also have the proper authority to modernize their staffing as the trade environment evolves.

Currently, CBP's Office of International Trade has several distinct but separate trade positions. This includes jobs such as import specialists, international trade analysts, management and program analysts, trade economists, auditors, attorneys, and so forth. These jobs do help CBP execute and enforce U.S. trade laws and ultimately protect our American economy, but there is a position missing, and that is a global trade specialist.

CBP has created such a position, but it doesn't have the flexibility, nor does it have the legal authority to hire for this position. Our legislation would give CBP that needed authority and so much more.

The global trade specialist position would allow CBP to realign and reshape the workforce in response to the evolving trade environment. It would be able to do this because the position also would better utilize and focus existing resources and Customs' revenue functions. It would give CBP more flexibility to modernize its trade workforce, to retain its employees, and to build its institutional knowledge. It would equip trade employees to more effectively execute trade enforcement and compliance operations. It would increase professional development opportunities.

Ultimately, by making trade facilitation jobs more attractive and rewarding rather than bureaucratic and boring, this legislation would enhance CBP's responsibility to recruit and retain staff and meet the mandated staffing levels as set forth in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

In the formulation of this bipartisan legislation, I am not only proud to have worked with my fellow Ways and Means and California colleague, Mrs. Steel, but it was built from provisions that were included in both the House's America COMPETES Act and the Senate's United States Innovation and Competition Act.

We also have incorporated feedback from CBP to ensure that this provision would work as intended and made additional changes at the request of Office and Personnel Management.

Lastly, this legislation is supported by the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CBP workers.

Due to its broad support, this legislation passed unanimously at that Ways and Means Committee markup last November. I thank Chairman Adrian Smith and, of course, Ranking Member Neal for supporting this bipartisan bill that is the product of good-faith collaboration.

It is a bill, Mr. Speaker, that will allow CBP employees to go beyond a bureaucratic role and actually allow CBP to be creative, to be flexible, and to be forward-thinking when it comes to the ebbs and flows and the future of trade.

That is why I worked on this legislation, that is why I fully support its passage, and I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Global Trade Specialist Act.

In closing, as you have heard, Mr. Speaker, this legislation has broad bipartisan support and support from the CBP. It really is critical that we modernize our trade administration as our trade environment is changing faster than ever. CBP's staffing model must evolve, and Congress must do its part to facilitate that evolution.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, to send this to the Senate and ultimately to the President's desk for signature into law.

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