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CBP official says AP story about ARRA funding is 'misleading'

WASHINGTON — The acting deputy commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has labeled as misleading an Aug. 26 Associated Press story about the CBP’s utilization of $420 million in Recovery Act funding “to replace aging infrastructure and enhance safety at the 43 ports of entry” owned by the CBP.

“On August 26, the Associated Press ran a misleading story that portrayed this process as biased and secretive. This is absolutely incorrect,” David Aguilar said in a release posted on the CBP Web site. “The AP was provided information which it chose not to include in its story that clearly demonstrates how our Recovery dollars are being put to work quickly and transparently.”

The AP claimed that political considerations helped determine which ports received ARRA funding, Aguilar said.

“In reality, CBP and the General Services Administration used a thorough, objective, and transparent process based on the merits of each project to select the ports-of-entry that will be modernized with ARRA funds,” he said.

A spokesman for the Associated Press told The Trucker that the Department of Homeland Security was not forthcoming with its justification process.

”The Associated Press has reported that the Department of Homeland Security process for spending stimulus money on border crossings was secretive and susceptible to political influence,” Jack Stokes, manager of media relations for the AP, said. “That analysis was made after AP reporters were given access to some, but not all, documentation by DHS in response to a request to explain the rationale or the reasoning behind funding low-priority projects ahead of high-priority ones. As of this date, DHS maintains the AP's reporting is incorrect but has declined to provide all of its spending-priority justifications for its 163 border crossing stations.”

The AP reported that CBP chose to use ARRA funding for small, low-traffic northern border ports rather than for busier ports along the southwest border, such as the port in Laredo, Texas.

“But what the AP story doesn’t reflect is how the funding process works and an understanding of how ownership of a port restricts the funding process,” Aguilar wrote. “The Department of Homeland Security received ARRA funding specifically for ports owned by CBP, which includes 39 ports of entry along the northern border and four along the southwest border. None of these CBP-owned ports are in Laredo. GSA owns or leases all the Laredo port facilities, part of the 38 southwest border land ports that GSA controls.”

The AP reported that the Whitetail project, which involves building a border station the size and cost of a Hollywood mansion, benefited from two key allies, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester.

Both pressed Napolitano to finance projects in their state, the AP said, noting that Tester’s office boasted of that effort in an April news release, crediting Baucus and his seat at the head of the “powerful Senate Finance Committee.”

Most of the ports CBP owns are small, rural, low-traffic ports along the northern border. Most are four decades old and unequipped to meet the security needs of a modern, post-9/11 world, Aguilar said.

Twenty-two ports owned by CBP were awarded ARRA money in the initial allocation of the $420 million, all of which must be spent on CBP-owned facilities, the ARRA act states.

The AP story noted that the port located at Whitetail, Mont., would receive $15 million.

According to federal Web sites and information provided by the CBP, there were 2,801 passenger crossings at that location in 2008 and only 31 truck and bus crossings.

In addition, among the other funding awards are eight border crossings in North Dakota that will receive a total of $128 million.

The Web sites and CBP information showed that during 2008 collectively at the North Dakota ports there were 43,372 bus and truck crossings (an average of 118 per day) and 426,033 passenger crossings (an average of 1,191 per day).

Information from federal sources showed that at the Laredo land port, which is owned by the General Services Administration, there were 1.5 million bus and truck crossings and over 7 million passenger crossings.

Several land ports along the southern border were identified in a recent report by the Department of Transportation Inspector General as not having enough space for proper inspections of all trucks and buses crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S.

The ARRA bill allocates a total of $720 million for land port construction, $420 million to DHS and $300 million to GSA.

The language in the GSA funding section of the ARRA act appears to give the agency some leeway in that in the portion of the bill dealing with the federal buildings fund of In April, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that DHS and the GSA would direct more than $400 million in ARRA funding to the Southwest border, which, in addition to physical plant construction, would include technology advancements.

The only port mention in the IG report to receive part of the $400 million is San Diego’s Otay Mesa, which is getting $20 million for improvements.

“Finally, the AP wrote that CBP had a secretive process for determining port funding and refused to provide justifications for its decisions. This is patently false,” Aguilar said. “Prior to the AP’s story, CBP had published the prioritized list of ARRA port projects, along with detailed information describing the review process, on www.Recovery.gov .

“The Department provided the AP with unprecedented access to a wide array of additional information about final project selections, including a nearly three-hour briefing and access to all supporting documents. CBP also provided written, on-the-record justifications for why specific ports were not eligible for ARRA funds due to feasibility and project readiness issues. We also made available to the AP numerous high-level policymakers for interviews on this topic.

In every instance, we provided the AP with information, which — if reported fully and accurately — would have addressed their questions. Americans should have confidence in the objectivity and openness with which ARRA funds have been dedicated to port projects and both CBP and the Department of Homeland Security are committed to upholding this responsibility.”

Lyndon Finney of The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected] .

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