Border Patrol agents offer plan to avert furlughs while cuttings costs
By Connor Radnovich, April 15 - Washington Post
Border Patrol agents would be willing to give up time-and-a-half overtime pay
if it meant they would not have to be furloughed as part of mandated federal
spending cuts, their union president testified Friday.
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told a House
subcommittee that in exchange for giving up overtime pay, agents would want a
two-step increase in base pay. But Judd said the government would still come out
ahead.
gThe reform I have just proposed saves tax dollars, reduces overtime pay and
brings about financial certainty to both the Border Patrol agents and the agency
alike,h Judd said at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committeefs
subcommittee on oversight and management efficiency.
Judd said agents would lose about $7,000 each in overtime while getting back
about $4,000 in the base-pay increase. He said the change could save the
government $40 million in the first year and $125 million annually after
that.
Customs and Border Protection officials declined to comment Friday on Juddfs
proposal, saying they are still looking at the best way to deal with the cuts
that could come under the budget sequestration.
But Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) said the unionfs proposal merits
consideration.
gI think we need to take a hard look at it, both the department and the
Congress, to see how it might better improve our border security and give some
certainty to agents and to our efforts to secure the homeland,h Barber said at
the hearing.
Judd repeated assertions that furloughs or reductions of overtime hours would
simply create holes in border security that smugglers would exploit to get
people and drugs into the country. He said such a move would make the country
less safe and erase the progress the Border Patrol has made over the past
several years.
He said agents routinely work overtime to deal with crime on the border.
Agents get regular pay for the first 851 /
2 hours they work over a two-week period and then
time-and-a-half up to 100 hours. His plan calls for straight time instead of
time-and-a-half.
Agents are paid half-time after working 100 hours in a pay period, which Judd
said happens often.
gYoufre already getting us on a very cheap wage,h Judd said. gWhat wefre
proposing is an even cheaper overtime system.h
The proposal is in response to the sequester cuts that were scheduled to
result in furloughs of Border Patrol agents this month. Those furloughs were put
on hold after Congress passed and President Obama signed a budget resolution
March 26 that funded government operations for the rest of this fiscal year.
The cuts are still coming, but Customs and Border Protection is taking a
second look at where to cut. The agency has not indicated how long the reprieve
might last.
gCBP is re-evaluating previously planned furloughs and de-authorization of
administratively uncontrollable overtime and will postpone implementation of
both at this time,h agency spokesman Michael Friel said Friday in an e-mail.
Judd said the union hopes to get its pay proposal attached as an amendment to
immigration reform bills that are expected to be introduced soon in the House
and Senate.
Furloughs and cutting overtime hours would be equivalent to reducing the
patrolfs workforce by 20 percent, a change that smugglers would be sure to
exploit, he said.
Judd said the advantage of the union proposal is that it provides consistency
and maintains the workforce currently stationed on the border. While other
methods of patrolling — such as unmanned aircraft — are helpful, he said agents
on the ground are still needed to make arrests.
— McClatchy-Tribune
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