Bureaucratic Drift: CBP, GSA and Ports of Entry

(Federal News Radio – Lurita Doan)

Federal agencies often share missions as a way to tap expertise, share responsibility and costs, usually for the good of the country. Land ports of entry, at the Canadian and Mexican borders of the United States, are a shared mission. Unfortunately, border crossing points have become victims of bureaucratic drift that hampers the free flow of legitimate trade and travel and does little to advance the agenda of President Obama and Congress.

With a few exceptions, land ports of entry are federally owned buildings. The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is the nation's landlord and builds and manages most of the federal government's buildings and courthouses. At the border, GSA is responsible for building, leasing and maintaining the facilities, while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provides security and inspection of both people and goods. Even the Departments of Commerce and State have responsibilities at the borders.

Also, unbeknownst to many Americans, state and local law enforcement use these border facilities in executing their missions. Our borders work best when these federal, state and local entities work together and when there is mutual respect for the responsibilities and the importance of each mission.

GSA isn't always efficient in executing its mission, and, often allows bureaucratic wrangling and inter-agency finger pointing that is counterproductive to accomplishing its mission priorities.
CBP is an organization, fighting for survival in the bureaucratic jungle that is DHS – an agency still undergoing growing pains since its inception in 2003. The 22 entities combined to form DHS still spend enormous amounts of time and taxpayer dollars fighting century-old turf wars. Read more here.