Stalled confirmation for CBP top post stokes frustration

Stalled confirmation for CBP top post stokes frustration    Ten House lawmakers representing districts on the southwestern border on Thursday urged the Senate to get moving on the stalled confirmation of Alan Bersin to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Baucus

   The Congressional Border Caucus expressed concern in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus that CBP is without a permanent leader at a time when security threats are mounting, such as the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane in Detroit.
   ‘This agency needs to have a commissioner with experience in border security and direction to ensure that our nation is in a position to be as safe and secure as possible,’ the lawmakers said.
   President Obama nominated Bersin to be commissioner last September. In the 14 months since Obama took office he has not had his own person in charge of the largest law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security.

Cuellar

   Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, chairman of the Homeland Security border, maritime and global counterterrorism subcommittee, separately said the leadership vacuum is also of concern at a time of escalating violence near the border as Mexican drug traffickers lash out against a sustained government crackdown on their activities. On Sunday an employee at the U.S. consulate in Juarez was gunned down along with her husband in their car, and the husband of another employee was killed in another incident.
   The U.S. government has provided Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and training to sustain law enforcement and military operations against the cartels. The Department of Homeland Security last year ramped up efforts to inspect outbound cargo to try and stem the flow of firearms and cash to the Mexican gangs. The department also deployed additional investigative agents, inspectors, canine teams and equipment such as mobile X-ray machines to the Southwest border to help the Mexican government and stop inter-gang warfare from spilling over the border.

Basham

   CBP has been without a politically appointed leader since February 2009, when Ralph Basham retired. Then-deputy commissioner Jayson Ahern ran the agency until the end of the year until he retired. Customs is now led by former Border Patrol chief David Aguilar in the capacity of deputy acting commissioner.

Ahern

      Bersin is coordinating DHS activities with Mexico, Canada and local governments along the southern and northern borders in his capacity as the department’s border czar. His formal title is assistant secretary for international affairs and special representative for border affairs, a position that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. During the Clinton administration, Bersin played a similar role coordinating law enforcement along the Southwest border. During that period he advised the attorney general on ways to improve immigration law enforcement and oversaw antidrug and human smuggling programs.

Bersin

   ‘Alan Bersin has nearly two decades of border law enforcement experience with a proven track record of securing our shared border with Mexico,’ Cuellar said.
   The Border Caucus said Bersin has been instrumental since last April in building bilateral relationships with state, local and international partners. He has been closely involved with northbound and southbound security efforts while trying to promote commerce and trade, it said.
   Obama named Erroll Southers to head the Transportation Security Administration about the same time as he nominated Bersin. Since that time, Southers had a confirmation hearing and then withdrew his name for consideration one month ago following disclosure that he improperly used his FBI position to conduct a background check on someone in his personal life. Since that time, Obama has named retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding to be TSA administrator and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has scheduled a hearing on his nomination for March 23.
   The Senate Finance Committee has been preoccupied for months drafting and negotiating a massive health care bill, which is at the top of Obama’s agenda. Nonetheless, the Finance Committee has recently held hearings on the president’s trade agenda and to consider the nominations of second-tier officials at the departments of Treasury, Commerce and Health and Human Services.
   ‘The Finance Committee has received Mr. Bersin’s paperwork and staff are currently reviewing the information. Conducting an expeditious and thorough review of nominees is simply critical. Committee staff — both majority and minority — evaluate nomination information as quickly as possible after it has been submitted to the committee and will continue to do so,’ a committee aide said on condition of anonymity because staff members are not authorized to speak in public.
   DHS and trade interests are also growing frustrated with the slow pace of Bersin’s confirmation.

Napolitano

   Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appealed to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during a DHS budget hearing on Feb. 24 to help unfreeze the Bersin confirmation process when confronted with news about a problem at CBP.
   ‘Any assistance the committee can give to help us fill that important position would be much appreciated,’ she said, with a roll of her eyes.

Flynn

   Stephen Flynn, president of the Center for National Policy and a respected homeland security analyst, said during a speaking engagement in Washington last week that it is ‘unbelievable’ that CBP does not have a commissioner in place yet, adding that the situation ‘speaks heavily to congressional dysfunction as well.’ ‘ Eric Kulisch