Should Congress fail to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection will have to furlough approximately 6,000 employees at midnight, February 27.
However, day to day processing of cargo should be unaffected, including border security, entry processing and revenue collection. Additionally, CBP overtime for security cargo exams will continue at West Coast Ports in a cooperative effort to clear the backlog created by the recently concluded labor dispute.
Administrative activities such as C-TPAT validations; Issuance of Brokers licenses, national permits, and filer codes; Binding Ruling Requests; Quota Processing; and, CBP Training will be discontinued during the furlough.
A DHS shutdown would look like the October 2013 shutdown, when nearly 200,000 of DHS’s 231,000-plus civilian and military employees were likely exempted from emergency furloughs. That means more than 85 percent of DHS workers continued doing their jobs, according to a Congressional Research Service report on DHS’s funding lapse.
The impasse over the Homeland Security funding reflects a broader fight in Congress over President Obama’s immigration policies. Interestingly, unlike other parts of DHS, the Citizenship and Immigration Services agency is financed almost entirely by applicant fees, rather than taxpayer dollars, making it immune to government shutdowns.
For more information, please contact your local MIQ Logistics representative.