Senior Official Performing the Duties of Commissioner Troy A. Miller delivered the following testimony to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security FY 2025 Budget Hearing April 30.
Chairman Amodei, Ranking Member Cuellar, and Members of the Subcommittee –Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and discuss the Fiscal Year 2025 President’s Budget for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Before I begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the four law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty yesterday – and those gravely wounded. A senseless tragedy, and a stark reminder of the dangers our nation’s law enforcement officers face every day. Our thoughts are with their families and colleagues, and we hope for swift recovery for the injured. CBP is standing shoulder to shoulder with you all.
It is my distinct honor to represent the men and women of CBP here today. As a career law enforcement official, I can speak firsthand to the changes I have seen over the last 30 years when I started with the U.S. Customs Service.
I can honestly tell you: I have never been more proud of the accomplishments of the CBP workforce than this past year. Just last week I had the great privilege to recognize some of their incredible achievements during our annual Commissioner’s Awards ceremony. These awards celebrate the extraordinary work CBP’s dedicated and talented people do every day – their everyday heroism.
All while facing serious challenges: from unprecedented migration flows, to increased risk in the trade environment, to the persistent threats and sophisticated tactics of transnational criminal organizations facilitating drug and human smuggling. I can assure you that the men and women of CBP are up to the challenge.
I could not be more grateful to the Members and staff of this Subcommittee for your continued support of CBP’s mission and workforce. You have ensured that we have the personnel, technology, equipment, and infrastructure to fulfill our broad responsibilities, and take care of our incredible workforce.
The Fiscal Year 2025 President’s Budget builds on CBP’s ongoing efforts to expand our situational and domain awareness; respond to emerging threats; and detect and intercept dangerous drugs and contraband.
This Budget:
- funds critical enhancements to border security technology;
- modernizes our facilities and processes to increase personnel safety and operational efficiency;
- and provides for additional agents, officers, and support staff.
First and foremost, we are the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency. At our borders and beyond, CBP continues to counter the threat of sophisticated criminal organizations engaged in drug smuggling. As you know, synthetic drugs like fentanyl are devastating our communities. In Fiscal Year 2023, CBP seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl — the equivalent of approximately 1.2 billion doses. That’s nearly double the amount we seized in FY 2022.
Our borders must be the last line of defense, not the first, so our enforcement efforts are multilayered and begin beyond the borders. That’s how we are attacking the fentanyl problem. Using intelligence and advanced targeting, we are going after the whole supply chain, from precursor chemicals to production equipment. We are also enhancing information sharing and collaboration with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, foreign governments, and the private sector. We are bolstering our enforcement capabilities in the trade environment — pursuing key proposals to strengthen our ability to combat de minimis shipment exploitation.
We continue to experience serious challenges with increased migration between the ports of entry: most of this is being driven by criminal organizations engaged in the lucrative — and cruel — human smuggling business.
We are prioritizing national security and disrupting criminal networks, while maximizing consequences for unlawful entry, including detention, prosecution, and removal. At the end of the day, our goal continues to be getting our Agents and Officers back to the law enforcement mission they were hired to do. The funding you have provided is critical to maximizing our immigration consequence delivery system.
Like I said at the start, the men and women of CBP are the driving force of our agency. In the coming years, we are expecting a retirement surge due to a large number of personnel reaching eligibility. We are planning now, with a human capital strategy to ensure the necessary staffing levels to perform our critical missions. I appreciate your support to confront this challenge by increasing hiring well in advance.
As I know you are all aware, CBP employees have difficult, and often dangerous, jobs. I see it as one of my top priorities to take care of our folks. With critical funding and guidance provided by Congress, CBP has expanded the availability of key programs like on-site clinicians, and enhanced our suicide prevention, chaplaincy, and peer support programs that are improving employee well-being and performance. With your partnership, CBP will continue to build on these investments and prioritize employee support and resilience.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your unwavering support of CBP’s mission and our people. I look forward to your questions.