DHS Secretary Nominee Discusses Port Security, CBP Hiring Challenges During Confirmation Hearing
Homeland Security secretary nominee Kirstjen Nielsen told senators Nov. 8 that port security should “evolve with the times,” as senators pressed her to dedicate as many resources as possible to employee recruitment and retention, including for CBP port officers. During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and James Lankford, R-Okla., urged Nielsen to shore up the Department of Homeland Security’s hiring and retention processes, as CBP is running an officer shortage of 3,500 positions and an agriculture specialist shortage of more than 600 positions.
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Nielsen said she would push for greater resources for recruitment and retention if confirmed, and Heitkamp invited her to visit the North Dakota to see firsthand how difficult recruitment and retention is along the northern border. Lankford mentioned that it takes an average of 450 days to onboard one CBP officer, 350 days above the federal government average, he said. “The system needs to keep up with the times, so whether that is the way in which we’re advertising, the way in which we’re allowing those to apply,” Nielsen said. “As I understand it, unfortunately, some of the websites where jobs are listed, the links are bad. So some of this is something that [is] low-hanging fruit, if you will.”
Nielsen said port security should address threats including those related to cybersecurity, and that the Trump administration is considering piloting and using some “additional screening equipment” at U.S. borders. “I’m not aware of the constraints that a port environment might provide, but certainly, we need the best and brightest, both in terms of personnel and technology, at the ports.”
In answers to her committee pre-hearing questionnaire, Nielsen said she would work with Congress to reauthorize DHS and bring “renewed attention” to DHS’s roles of targeting drugs and chemical precursors in foreign ports of embarkation as well as strengthen DHS border interdiction efforts and investigations of transnational criminal organizations. If confirmed, Nielsen would also provide “any technical assistance that’s necessary” to implement the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act -- should the bill pass -- different versions of which are pending in both chambers of Congress, she said. The bill would make the U.S. postmaster general the importer of record for non-letter-class mail imported into the U.S., impose a $1 duty on each item of imported non-letter-class mail, and establish a process to require the postmaster general to “provide for” advance data transmission to CBP of certain information on non-letter-class mail imported into the U.S.