Juan Ciscomani Questions Acting CBP Commissioner About Agency Retirement Eligibility Issues

Forbes Breaking News

During Thursday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ) questioned Acting Customs And Border Protection Commissioner Pete Flores about retirement eligibility.

Transcript

00:00Arizona, home of the five C's, copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.

00:06Mr. Siskimani, the floor is yours for five minutes.

00:09You're really doing a great job today, Chairman.

00:12All the personalized...

00:14I'm exhausted, but go right ahead.

00:15It's great. It's great.

00:18Acting Commissioner, thank you for being here with us today,

00:20and thank you for your leadership in this very important issue to the entire nation.

00:25I represent Arizona's sixth congressional district.

00:27It's in the southern part of the southeastern part of the state,

00:30so in the border with Mexico.

00:32I've had the opportunity to visit countless times with your UFO officers,

00:37with the CBP agents, and the AMO agents as well,

00:41and I'm always very impressed with their grit,

00:44even through the hardest times in the last few years,

00:47just how they were able to show up and keep doing the job,

00:50in spite of everything else going on.

00:53So I have a lot of pride in representing them in Congress.

00:57I have a large number of them in my district, living in my district.

01:02So I want to ask a question here on an issue,

01:06on the EFRS issue that we're seeing.

01:09It's my understanding that federal law enforcement officers face mandatory retirement

01:13at age 57, which we know,

01:15but can retire earlier if they have 20 years in service

01:18and are over 50, or even younger if they have 25 years of service.

01:22This applies for law enforcement or CBP, correct?

01:26Correct.

01:27Okay.

01:27And how many CBP personnel do you have who are eligible for retirement today,

01:33and how many will be eligible in the next couple of years?

01:36So just on the retirement issue, just start with, you're correct,

01:40in regards to, so we have officers, agents,

01:42any other CBP law enforcement personnel.

01:44So at the age of 50 with 20 years worth of service can retire,

01:48at any age with 25 years worth of service can retire in regards if they're a Leo.

01:54In regards to our numbers of retirement,

01:57so we look at CBP has currently a little over 67,000 employees in CBP right now.

02:04If we look at our current number of those eligible to retire,

02:07we're somewhere right about 5,900 individuals that are employees that are able to retire.

02:13Within that 5,900 that are eligible to retire,

02:17we have another 3,300 of those that are Leos or law enforcement that are eligible for retirement.

02:24Great.

02:24Thank you for that.

02:26Under the federal employee retirement system that I mentioned,

02:30there's federal law enforcement officers receive a supplement to their annuity

02:36when they retire to bridge them until they become eligible for security at age 62.

02:42Our colleagues on the House Oversight Committee recently reported out legislation

02:46as part of the reconciliation process that would have required a federal law enforcement officer

02:51to work until they are 57 to receive this supplement.

02:55I have a huge Border Patrol presence in my district, as I mentioned earlier,

03:00and I personally know agents who, because of injuries,

03:03really struggle to make it to retirement eligibility, let alone the mandatory retirement age of 57.

03:10Specifically, when I've gone over on the far remote areas of the border

03:15and I realize the terrain that these agents are going up and down,

03:18I've heard stories of how their knees give out in their 40s sometime and even earlier,

03:24and the injuries that they have.

03:27The Arizona border is a very unique border, as you know, in the southern part there.

03:31Because of, again, the terrain, some areas you can't even build a barrier because of that.

03:35It's very different than some of the other neighboring states.

03:38So anecdotally, I've heard from these agents in their retirement papers right now

03:44that they're putting in because they fear that they will not be able to physically make it

03:49to the age of 57, which is because of what I just described as well.

03:54So is this something that you're tracking on that with the men and women working in your department?

04:01And how might this provision removing supplemental pay impact pay may impact your agency

04:08and also your recruitment efforts and retainment efforts?

04:12Thank you for the question, Congressman.

04:13So we track retirements on a regular basis on what we're seeing in regards to employees putting in for retirement.

04:21In regards to anything that is added or taken away,

04:25obviously Congress will have that input on what happens next on whether or not any of the language

04:31or what that language looks like in reconciliation or anywhere else.

04:35I can tell you from my personal experience,

04:38any time we have or there is discussion about potential impacts to employees' pay or benefits,

04:46there is some impact to that in regards to at least our current employees, right?

04:51When you start talking about impacts to current employees' benefits and pay,

04:56there is some impact and concern from our existing employees.

05:01Well, I go back to my district every weekend.

05:03I spend a lot of time out and about from on the field in football games or at the grocery store or church.

05:12And every time I, right now, talking to someone in the federal law enforcement,

05:18this is the number one issue on their mind and what we're working on here.

05:22So something that we're addressing.

05:23And I wanted to make sure what your thoughts were on that in terms, again, of the recruitment part,

05:27but also in the retention right now, given the numbers that you have

05:30and the ones that are eligible for retirement,

05:33this is the time that we need our workforce and our experienced workforce to be on this.

05:38And that's why I think it's important to fix that.

05:41And we will.

05:42So thank you, sir, for being here.

05:44And thank you for your testimony today.

05:46Chairman, you're back.

05:50The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Aloha Country.

05:56Since we're talking about new states these days, not that it's...

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