Date: 2010-12-21
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise in support of S. 3243. the AntiBorder Corruption Act of 2010. and yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. we all have a stake in ensuring that the agency in charge of securing our border is strong and effective. Accordingly. I believe that corruption anywhere in the ranks of Customs and Border Protection. or CBP. must be dealt with swiftly and effectively. Now. having gone to our border. both northern and southern border. I am well aware that there is a lot of hard work. sacrifice. and professionalism that goes on among our CBP personnel. In fact. I have engaged with them over the years. S. 3243. however. will foster greater integrity throughout the CBP by requiring polygraph tests for all its law enforcement applicants and directing CBP leadership to conduct periodic reinvestigations on current personnel to root out any corruptionvery important in light of the extreme conditions. particularly on the southern border. and the fight that we have against drug cartels and violence. The men and women of Customs and Border Protection. CBP. serve on the front line in extreme heat. terrible cold. and other difficult circumstances to protect the Nation against homeland security and criminal threats. and we are enormously grateful to them. I am proud of the strides that Congress has made over the years to bolster the efforts of these fine men and women by. among other things. doubling the size of the Border Patrol from about 10.000 agents in FY 2002 to more than 20.000 in FY 2009. I am very pleased that having served on that committee since its origin. and having served under Chairman THOMPSON. that was one of our number one priorities. In fact. legislation that I introduced became. ultimately. part of a Senate bill that helped increase the number of Border Patrol agents at the border. the southern border in particular. Traditional smuggling routes and networks have been disrupted because of our Federal efforts to secure the border. But in response. smugglers and other criminal organizations are actively seeking out other ways to conduct their illegal activity. They have. in some cases. resorted to infiltrating and weakening CBP from within its ranks. While the majority of CBP employees are not corrupt and are putting their lives on the line every day to keep America secure. there are some who are undermining their efforts. Let me remind my colleagues: The majority of CBP employees are not corrupt. and we thank them for their sacrifice. However. enactment of this bill will strengthen personnel integrity. result in greater hiring efficiency. and protect those who are doing their job every single day. According to CBP. approximately 15 percent of applicants received a polygraph examination last year. Of those. about 60 percent were found unsuitable for service. CBP has also found that less than 1 percent of applicants cleared by polygraph testing failed the required background investigation. It shows that this process will work. In contrast. roughly 22 percent of applicants who do not undergo this testing fail their background investigations. Maintaining workforce integrity is a continuous process that does not end with preemployment screening. With the aggressive growth in CBP. the agency has struggled to keep up with its periodic reinvestigations of certain personnel. S. 3243 would require CBP to initiate reinvestigation within 6 months of enactment and report to Congress on its progress. all toward the idea of ensuring the integrity of law enforcement at a very crucial time in Americas history. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of S. 3243. because this legislation will help bolster CBPs ability to ensure integrity throughout the ranks of this critical Homeland Security agency. And. frankly. I believe the men and women who are doing their job every day will welcome this kind of process in order to be able to stand alongside of those men and women just like them. I urge support. I reserve the balance of my time.