TOPICS
TOPICS
Border officers get retirement benefits boost
A measure that took effect on Sunday will grant more than 18,000 Customs and Border Protection officers enhanced retirement benefits.
The provision, passed by Congress late last year as part of a catchall spending bill, gives CBP officers law enforcement status, increasing their pension benefits and allowing them to retire earlier.
Federal employees classified as law enforcement officers can retire at age 50 after 20 years of service or at any age after 25 years of service, whereas other federal employees must put in 30 or more years of service and be at least 55 years old when they retire.
There is one caveat; the enhanced benefits are not retroactive. This means the new retirement eligibility criteria will apply only to officers hired after July 6. Other officers will still begin to receive the pension boost, however, and that is expected to translate to thousands of dollars in additional benefits annually when compounded.
The Bush administration opposes granting law enforcement status to CBP officers, and in his fiscal 2009 budget request, the president sought to repeal the program. The administration claims that CBP officers do not meet the definition of law enforcement officers and therefore should not qualify for the early retirement option.
But the House Appropriations Committee rejected Bush's proposal and in late June approved $217 million to continue the retirement program for CBP officers in fiscal 2009. The bill also provides funding for an additional 100 CBP agriculture specialists and 734 more CBP officers -- significantly more than the 539 proposed by President Bush.
In January, CBP Assistant Commissioner Robert Hosenfeld praised Congress' passage of the retirement program, noting that the enhanced benefits "will aid CBP's recruitment and retention of the best and brightest officers and build a vigorous workforce for the future."
The National Treasury Employees Union, which has led a years-long fight to secure enhanced benefits for CBP officers, praised the launch of the new retirement program, noting that the benefits are "long-delayed and unfairly denied."
"It has taken a long time, but it was the right thing to do from the beginning," NTEU President Colleen Kelley said. "These employees put their lives at risk for the rest of us every day. LEO status and benefits are well-deserved recognition for their efforts."
COMMENTS
- The last person who posted the comment that cbp officers are front line soldiers represents the bastion of managerial ignorance that has been plaguing the organization since its founding. The only similarity between CBP officers and soldiers are the military grooming standards that CBP has adopted for its one face at the border campaign. fmr cbpo Posted February 6, 2009 4:10 AM
- I am currently a Chief GS-13 for CBP. I think that it is great the the "enhanced retirement" was passed for CBP Officers. The fact is that CBP Officers are the "front line solders" for our country. We apprehend more drugs, wanted crimminals, and people that wish harm to our counrty than any other agency. Yes, we have deadwood within our ranks just like any agency but that doesn't mean that the agency as a whole is bad or lazy. I have been doing this job for 20 years and I still feel like we are making a difference for America. Our new retirement system is not the same as 6C but is simular in pay and is deserved. If all we did was stamp passports and allow visitors into the country then I could see the point of other posters but that is simply not the case. We have had a retention problem for a long time and perhaps this new retirement system will go a long way to fix that. Jerry K Posted January 31, 2009 8:21 PM
- I worked as a Detnetion Enforcement Officer, Immigration Inspector, CBP Officer, CBP Supervisor and now ICE Agent. CBP does have some jobs that do warrant 6c that is why the CBP enfocement position remained (Old Immigration Senior Inepctor). However there are some jobs in CBP that do want warrant 6c. Another thing also worrisome before leaving CBP was the negativity of the new CBP officers about doing the immigration and some customs jobs. Many complained about having to work immigration primary, much less immigration secondary, Customs Rover and Checkpoints. They wanted to go to areas where they had no contact with the public like cargo and seaport. I recall a new guy not even a GS9 saying this is for 30 years and was going to work private aircraft because you did almost nothing all day. Another admitted a guy with a bad passport and when quetioned he stated "that the system should have alerted how was he going to know". Presently I am assigned to a small ICE sub office and we are constantly fighting with CBP beacuse they dont want to process arriving aliens. They try to find ways to have them fall under ICE jusridiction to not have to process them. I told one CBP Officer you got all the benefits and dont want to do the work and your good for is for having your picutre taken when there is some photo op or publicity event. ICE is not legacy immigration by a long shot. Legacy immigration investigators did 0. The ICE investigators are doing a good job and we have gotten some info from admin arrests involving other cirminal activity. The problem with immigration cases is a system that is not user freindly and the law for some is overwhelming. ICE dude Posted January 1, 2009 2:37 PM
