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Parties Involved:
National Treasury Employees Union
Appellant
George J. Weise
Appellee

Document Text:

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1 The union filed suit shortly after promulgation of the interim rule on January 1, 1994, 58 Fed.

Reg. 68,520, 68,523 (1993). The rule became final in October 1994 while this litigation was

pending in the district court. 59 Fed. Reg. 46,752 (1994). 

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

Argued September 30, 1996 Decided November 19, 1996

No. 95-5149

NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION,

APPELLANT

v.

GEORGE J. WEISE, COMMISSIONER,

UNITED STATES CUSTOMS SERVICE,

APPELLEE

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the District of Columbia

(94cv00163)

Elaine D. Kaplan argued the cause for appellant. With her on the briefs was Gregory O'Duden.

Clinton D. Wolcott entered an appearance.

Fred E. Haynes, Assistant United States Attorney, argued the cause for appellee. With him on the

brief were Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, R. Craig Lawrence and Michael J. Ryan,

Assistant United States Attorneys.

Before: WILLIAMS, GINSBURG, and RANDOLPH, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge RANDOLPH.

RANDOLPH, Circuit Judge: The National Treasury Employees Union is the bargaining

representative for employees ofthe United StatesCustoms Service, an agencywithin the Department

of the Treasury. The union brought this action to challenge an interim rule of the Customs Service

defining a "customs officer" entitled to receive overtime and premium pay under 19 U.S.C. § 267,

as revised in 1993.1 The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the government, and

we affirm.

I

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A

The Customs Service collects customs duties and excise taxes, and processes people, cargo,

and mail entering the United States. Its duties also include interdicting drugs and other contraband;

administering certain navigation laws; ensuring compliance with trade and export control laws; and

enforcing, at the nation's borders, laws such as auto safety standards, flammable fabric restrictions,

and animal quarantine requirements. The Customs Service now operates at approximately 300 U.S.

ports of entry and has field offices in 22 foreign cities. See generally OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL

REGISTER, UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT MANUAL 1996/97, at 452-53 (1996).

Throughout most of this century, those working in the Customs Service enjoyed a very

generous overtime and premium pay system, set in place by the Act of Feb. 13, 1911, ch. 46, § 5, 36

Stat. 899, 901, a system unique among federal employees. In 1892, Congress had enacted an

eight-hour day for all government workers. Act of Aug. 1, 1892, ch. 352, 27 Stat. 340. But customs

inspectors could not count on working regular shifts. International commerce in the early 1900's

came mainly by ship from Europe. No one could predict with certainty when a particular vessel

would arrive. Customs inspectors were therefore on call around the clock, week in and week out,

"at all times and in all weathers," 59 Cong. Rec. 2171, 2175 (1920). For this reason, and others,

Congress decided that if "inspectors, storekeepers, weighers, and other customs officers and

employees" had to perform inspectional work at night, or on Sunday, or on a holiday, they should be

paid "extra compensation." Act of Feb. 13, 1911, ch. 46, § 5, 36 Stat. 901.

After a series of amendmentsto the 1911 Act unnecessary to recount, see, e.g., United States

v. Myers, 320 U.S. 561 (1944), customs employees working after regular business hours, or on

Sundays or holidays, became entitled to wages several times their usual hourly wage. Those

performing inspectionalservicesfor any length of time on a Sundaysay just 15 minutesreceived

pay for 16 hours of work. U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, CUSTOMS SERVICE: 1911 ACT

GOVERNINGOVERTIMEISOUTDATED 14 (1991). Those working on a holiday were paid not only for

16 hours of work but also for the actual time they worked. Id. Those called back to work in an

evening, after normal hours, received a minimumof 4 to 12 hours pay. Id. "Overtime for night work

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2 Other federal employees, governed by the Federal Employees Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 5541-

5549, now receive 11/2 times their basic hourly wage for working more than 8 hours in a day or

40 hours in a week, a 10% pay premium for night work, a 25% pay premium for work on

Sundays, and twice their normal pay for work on holidays. 

[was] paid at a rate of one-half day's additional pay (4 hours) for each two hours or fraction thereof

of at least 1 hour that the overtime extend[ed] beyond 5:00 p.m. These rates [could] not exceed 21/2

days pay (or 20 hours) for the full time period 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. (15 hours)." CONGRESSIONAL

RESEARCH SERVICE, OVERTIME AND PREMIUM PAY FOR U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE OFFICERS:

STATUTES COMPARED WITH 103D CONGRESS PROPOSALS 9 (1993).2

For many years Congress exhibited little interest in the expense of all this, doubtless because

the federal treasury was not footing the bill. Importers and shippers reimbursed Customs for

inspectional overtime on an "as needed" basis, a tradition dating back to 1799, and perhaps earlier.

The Fifth Congress required ships coming from foreign ports to unload their cargo "between the

rising and setting of the sun," unless the "collector of the port" issued a "special license," available

for a suitable fee of course. Act of Mar. 2, 1799, ch. 22, § 50, 1 Stat. 665. A century passed before

each port's collector of customs became charged with a statutory duty to "distribute" the special

license fees "among the inspectors assigned to superintend the unlading of the cargo" at night. Act

of Mar. 3, 1873, ch. 240, 17 Stat. 579.

In 1984 Congress began authorizing Customs to collect fees for services previously exempt

from charges. Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, Pub. L. No. 98-573, § 236, 98 Stat. 2948, 2992-93.

Shortly thereafter, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, Pub. L. No. 99-

272, §§ 13031- 13033, 100 Stat. 82, 308-11 (1986), prescribed "user fees" for international

passengers and cargo carriers, replacing earlier laws that had carriers directly reimbursing Customs

for overtime services as provided. Rather than going directly to the Customs Service, these fixed user

fees were deposited into a Treasury Department accountthe Customs User Fee Account. The

account was then used to refund appropriations that Customs used to pay for overtime inspectional

activities.

Concern about the increasing amounts Customs was drawing from this Treasury account for

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overtime pay$103 million in 1990, up from$57 million in 1985prompted members ofthe House

Ways and Means Committee to request the General Accounting Office to investigate. The GAO

completed its assignment in June 1991. Its report, and hearings before a Ways and Means

subcommittee, led to the 1993 Customs Officer Pay Reform Amendments, revising the 1911 statute

and providing that certain excessfundsin the Customs User Fee Account, up to $18 million annually,

shallbe transferred to the generalfund ofthe Treasury. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993,

Pub. L. No. 103-66, §§ 13811-13813, 107 Stat. 312, 668-72.

B

The 1993 amendments to § 267 entitle each "customs officer who is officially assigned to

perform work in excess of 40 hours in the administrative workweek of the officer or in excess of 8

hours in a day" to overtime compensation at the rate of twice the basic hourly rate. 19 U.S.C. §

267(a)(1). Customs officers who are called back to do overtime work generally receive credit for at

least 2 hours of work and are paid 3 times the basic hourly rate for commuting time. Id. § 267(a)(2).

If the majority of the hours of a customs officer's regular shiftsfall between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.,

the officer is entitled to premium pay of between 15% and 20% above the basic hourly rate for those

hours. Id. § 267(b)(1). Customs officers receive 11/2 times the basic hourly rate for regularly

scheduled work on Sundays, id. § 267(b)(2), and twice the basic hourly rate for regularly scheduled

work on holidays, id. § 267(b)(3). With the exception of the provision for officers called back to

work, premiumand overtime pay is now only available for time actuallyworked and customs officers

are not paid for minimum periods of time.

The portion of the revised § 267 that is the object of this litigation is as follows:

the term "customs officer" means an individual performing those functions specified

by regulation by the Secretary of the Treasury for a customs inspector or canine

enforcement officer. Such functions shall be consistent with such applicable standards

as may be promulgated by the Office of Personnel Management.

19 U.S.C. § 267(e)(1). The Customs Service took this provision as a directive, or an authorization,

to promulgate a regulation, which states in relevant part:

Customs Officer means only those individuals assigned to position descriptions

entitled "Customs Inspector," "Supervisory Customs Inspector," "Canine

Enforcement Officer," or "Supervisory Canine Enforcement Officer."

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3 Counsel informed us that the Customs Service currently has 340 separate, official Position

Descriptions for Customs Inspectors and 44 official Position Descriptions for Canine Enforcement

Officers. A typical Position Description includes the following under the heading "Passenger

Processing" and the subheading "Enforcement":

Enforces Customs laws and those of other agencies in passenger and baggage

inspection work. In situations involving a wide variety of conditions and

complexities, makes on-the-spot decisions in recognizing and evaluating conditions

and circumstances that may provide evidence of smuggling, fraud, terrorism, and

other violations. Apprehends, searches, detains, and arrests, if warranted, violators

of the civil and criminal laws of the United States, requiring skill in defensive

techniques, including firearms proficiency. Identifies, subdues, if necessary, arrests

(if granted peace officer status by the state), and detains wanted persons on

Federal, State, and local warrants. Utilizes and applies enforcement tools which

include, but are not limited to, the Treasury Enforcement Communications System,

19 C.F.R. § 24.16(b)(7).

II

The union's challenge to the regulation rests on the idea that § 267(e)(1) required theCustoms

Service to list "functions," not positions according to job descriptions. Duties assigned to customs

inspectors and canine enforcement officers, we are told, are sometimes also performed by persons

not holding those titles. As the union sees it, if Customs had complied with § 267(e)(1) and

developed a regulation listing tasks, any customs employee performing those tasks, regardless of the

employee's official title, would become a "customs officer" entitled overtime and premiumpay under

§ 267.

The union's reading of § 267(e)(1) rests on what may be a misconception, one the Customs

Service itself entertains. Both parties think § 267(e)(1) commanded Customs to promulgate some

sort of new regulation. But the language of the provision scarcely says as much. Section 267(e)(1)'s

reference to "functions specified by regulation by the Secretary of the Treasury" may be taken as a

reference to pre-existing regulations. Federal agencies issue written classifications of the positions

in the agency. These are often detailed documents, specifying the duties, functions, and qualifications

of the offices. See Kleiman v. Department of Energy, 956 F.2d 335, 336 n.1 (D.C. Cir. 1992); 5

U.S.C. §§ 5101-5115. As one would expect, before the 1993 amendments to § 267, Customs already

had "Position Descriptions" for its employees, including customsinspectors and canine enforcement

officers, specifying the functions of those holding the positions.3

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National Crime Information Center, National Law Enforcement

Telecommunications Systems, selective enforcement systems, questioning of

passengers, and smuggling profiles. Reviews import/export documentation to

identify patterns of violations and of contraband smuggling. Prepares reports of

enforcement activities including search/Arrest/Seizure Reports, Memorandum of

Information Received, etc. 

These Position Descriptions seem to be the equivalent of what § 267(e)(1) refers to as a

"regulation." Courts and Congress treat the terms "regulation" and "rule" as interchangeable and

synonymous. When we speak of an agency's "regulation"a term nowhere mentioned in the

Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq.we have in mind what the APA defines as a

"rule," that is,

the whole or part of any agency statement of general or particular applicability and

future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policyor describing

the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency and includes the

approval or prescription for the future of rates, wages, corporate or financial

structures or reorganizations thereof, prices, facilities, appliances, services or

allowancestherefor or of valuations, costs, or accounting, or practices bearing on any

of the foregoing.

5 U.S.C. § 551(4). Position Descriptions could fit comfortably within § 551(4). They constitute

agency statements of future effect describing the agency's organization and practices. As rules

dealing solely with "agency management and personnel," the Position Descriptions for customs

inspectors and canine enforcement officers would be exempt from the APA's rule making

requirements, 5 U.S.C. § 553(a)(2), but that would not affect their status as "rules," and hence

"regulations" of the sort mentioned in § 267(e)(1).

On this view of § 267(e)(1), it was unnecessaryfor Customsto promulgate the new regulation

we have before us. Customs already had regulations, in the form of Position Descriptions, specifying

the functions of the two positions. There is not a hint that in amending § 267, Congress wanted

Customs to modify its existing standards for customs inspectors and canine enforcement officers.

Even in its new regulation Customs made no such change. Its new regulation, promulgated after the

revision of § 267, merely relies on "regulations" already in effect: "Customs Officermeans only those

individuals assigned to position descriptions entitled "Customs Inspector,' "Supervisory Customs

Inspector,' "Canine Enforcement Officer,' or "Supervisory Canine Enforcement Officer'." As such,

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this new regulation may have added nothing, but it is unnecessary to decide the question.

Even if § 267(e)(1) required Customs to come up with an implementing regulation, the one

it promulgated must be sustained. It seems clear to us, as it did to the Customs Service, that the new

overtime and premiumpay provisionsin § 267 turn onwho is performing the work. While that "who"

is defined in terms ofthe functions of customsinspectors and canine enforcement officers, the criteria

for paying overtime or premium pay are not. For instance, the statute provides that "a customs

officer who is officially assigned to perform work in excess of 40 hours" in a workweek shall be

compensated at twice his usual hourly wage. 19 U.S.C. § 267(a)(1). There is nothing in this

language that makes overtime paydependent onwhatfunctionsthe "customs officer" performs during

his overtime hours. The same is true with respect to the premium pay provisions. "A customs officer

who performs any regularly scheduled work on a Sunday" is entitled to time-and-a-half pay. 19

U.S.C. § 267(b)(2). "A customs officer who performs any regularly scheduled work on a holiday"

gets double time. Id. § 267(b)(3). These Sunday and holiday provisions, like the overtime provision,

indicate that a certain class of people"customs officers"are entitled to premium pay if they work

at certain times. Section 267(e)(1) defines that class, as does the regulation the Customs Service

promulgated.

The union'sreading of § 267in which employees could be a "customs officer" one moment,

and not a "customs officer" the next, depending on what particular work they were doingalso

cannot be squared with the provisions relating to nighttime work. Section 267(b)(1)(A) provides a

15% or 20% pay premium "[i]f the majority of the hours of regularly scheduled work of a customs

officer" occur between 3:00 p.m. and midnight. This can only be read as referring to the work

schedules of a well-defined class of people: under § 267(e)(1) and the regulation, those who meet

the Customs Service definition of customs inspectors and canine enforcement officers. Section

267(b)(1)(A) cannot possibly mean that other employees who regularly work the night shift are also

entitled to premium pay whenever they perform any functions that might be assigned to persons in

those two positions.

There are other difficulties of administration lurking in the union's approach. If a customs

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employee worksthe first three hours of a week doing a job normally assigned to a customsinspector

and then worksforty more hours as a mailspecialist, which are the overtime hours? It would be odd

to suppose that a customs employee should get double time for three hoursspent inspecting baggage

on Monday morning just because the employee came in specially at hissupervisor'srequest to do his

regular work as a mail specialist on Saturday.

The union points to instances in which Customs employees with the Position Description

"Import Specialist" sometimes inspected passengers and baggage on an overtime basis and in which

customsinspectorsworked alongside employeeswiththePositionDescription"MailSpecialist." One

may wonder about the equity of providing special overtime and premium pay to customs inspectors

but not to import specialists and mail specialists performing the same tasks, but the practice is

sanctioned by the statute. Only a limited number of Customs employees count as "customs officers"

under § 267, and import specialists and mail specialists are not among them, whatever the nature of

their work. If a mail specialist's job is truly the same as that performed by customs inspectors, his real

complaint is that Customs has classified him as a mail specialist rather than a customs inspector, not

that the Customs Service regulation excludes mail specialists from the class of "customs officers."

It is quite certain that Congress meant to limit the amount of overtime and premiumpay being

drawn from the Customs User Fee Account. That it did so by limiting the class of Customs

employees eligible for the special overtime and premium pay provisions finds support in § 267's

history as well as its text. The fact that customs employees other than customs inspectors received

special overtime and premium pay under the old statute figured prominently in the criticisms that led

to reform. See, e.g., U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE, CUSTOMS SERVICE: 1911 ACT

GOVERNING OVERTIME IS OUTDATED, supra, at 37; U.S. Customs Service's Abuse of Overtime

Compensation: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Oversight of the House Comm. on Ways and

Means, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. 73, 82-83, 122-23, 148 (1991). It is thus significant that while the pre1993 overtime and premium pay system applied to all "customs officers and employees," 19 U.S.C.

§ 267 (1988), the amended statute limited eligibility to "customs officers," thereby narrowing the

class.

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We therefore conclude that the Customs Service regulation, while perhaps superfluous,

conformsto § 267(e)(1) and reflectsthe most sensible interpretation of how Congress meant to have

eligibility for overtime and premium pay determined under § 267.

Affirmed.

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