Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey recommending the sharing of FBI best practices to improve the pre-employment screening process at Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The letter is a follow-up to Flake’s questioning of Director Comey at Wednesday’s FBI oversight hearing, during which he raised concerns about the flawed administration of CBP’s polygraph.

According to data provided by CBP, hiring delays associated with the agency’s necessarily thorough vetting process have resulted in high rates of failure, with only about one percent of applicants successfully being hired. Approximately 1,700 Border Patrol agent positions and 1,000 CBP officer positions remain unfilled, in part, due to the agency’s slow hiring rate and issues associated with the polygraph.

To address hiring shortfalls at CBP, Flake introduced the Boots on the Border Act to waive onerous and duplicative CBP polygraph hiring requirements for applicants with qualifying law enforcement or military experience. The bill is endorsed by the Tucson Local 2544 Border Patrol union and is cosponsored by U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.  

“At a time when Arizonans are rightfully demanding a secure border, it’s unjustifiable to be turning away qualified applicants with distinguished military and law enforcement service because of a potentially flawed polygraph,” said Flake. “It is my hope that the sharing of FBI best practices will help ensure that bureaucratic hiring obstacles don’t prevent CBP from carrying out its critical border security and trade facilitation missions.” 

Background:

• On Dec. 5, 2016, Flake and U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) introduced the Customs and Border Protection Hiring and Retention (CBP HiRe) Act. The bill was designed to boost manpower at strained ports of entry along the U.S. border by giving CBP new tools to eliminate recruitment and retention obstacles that have left the agency nearly 1,000 CBP officers short of congressionally-mandated staffing levels. Read more about the bill here.
   
• On Oct. 19, 2015, Flake, McCain, and U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) had their bill, the Border Jobs for Veterans Act, signed into law. This law will help put veterans to work as CBP officers at understaffed U.S. ports of entry by requiring the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to cooperate on efforts to recruit and expedite the hiring of transitioning service members. Read more about the bill here.  

View a signed copy of the letter here.
View the complete text of the letter below.

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May 4, 2017

The Honorable James B. Comey
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigations
935 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535 

Dear Director Comey:

I write regarding issues related to pre-employment polygraph examinations for law enforcement applicants to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

You may be aware that beginning in January 2013, all applicants for law enforcement positions at CBP were required to pass a polygraph test as part of a pre-employment screening process. However, high failure rates and challenges related to the administering of the polygraph have prevented CBP from hiring enough officers to adequately staff our ports of entry.

I raised this issue with you during a recent oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee because the problems related to the polygraph appear to be unique to CBP. It is my understanding that several other federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, require passage of a pre-employment polygraph exam as a standard for employment. Given the FBI’s experience successfully administering these exams, I would encourage continued collaboration with other agencies to share best practices and provide assistance to CBP on how to effectively administer a polygraph test without disrupting the hiring process.

I hope that the FBI will consider providing the necessary guidance that will allow CBP to address this issue while managing to comply with all applicable standards for law enforcement screenings. In addition, towards the goal of improving the process, I request you share with our office any impressions or lessons learned as a result of collaborating with CBP.  I appreciate your attention to this issue and ask that this request be handled in strict accordance with all agency rules, regulations, and ethical guidelines.

Sincerely,

JEFF FLAKE
United States Senator

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