Trade community uneasy about Secret Service pick for CBP commissioner
Importers whose operations are regulated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection are taking a wait-and-see approach to President Bush’s nomination Monday of U.S. Secret Service Director W. Ralph Basham to be the agency’s new commissioner.
But industry officials are clearly nervous that an official with a law enforcement background might be predisposed to place a high priority on strict security measures at the expense of the free flow of trade.
Robert C. Bonner, who left as head of CBP in late November, was credited by the trade community for developing cargo security measures that minimized delays or even made the process of releasing goods into the country more efficient. Security and trade facilitation became the agency’s twin mission after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
With a law enforcement official in charge “do we have twin pillars or do we have one pillar?” said Jon Kent, a partner in the Washington law firm of Kent & O’Connor and counsel to the National Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association of America. “I think the private sector needs to continue to get emerging government figures to swear on a stack of Bibles that commercial operations are an important responsibility that cannot be subordinated wholly to security interests.”
Ray Kelly, a New York City police commissioner, preceded Bonner as Customs commissioner and had a reputation in the import-export community for preferring to catch violators rather than working to clarify policies and help companies comply with trade regulations.
“The hope is that we will be able to continue to work with Customs as we did with Bonner in a true spirit of partnership between the public and private sectors,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president for global supply chain policy at the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
“Our concern with anybody that goes in that spot is will they be cognizant about the need to facilitate trade. That’s our biggest concern. Hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to express that to him personally,” said NCBFAA President Federico “Kiko” Zuniga.
He said it is too early to form any opinion about how Basham will run CBP.
“I hate to prejudge an individual, because you never know until they are in the role how they will act,” Zuniga said.
CBP has many good assistant commissioners and other leaders who have played key roles in improving relations with the trade community and can help Basham strengthen that partnership if he keeps an open mind to dealing with border security and trade issues, Zuniga and others said.
Basham joined the Secret Service in 1970 as a special agent, and has led the agency since January 2003. The Secret Service, which provides protective services to top government officials and investigates threats to protected persons and financial crimes, is part of the Department of Homeland Security along with CBP.
Basham previously served for a year as chief of staff for the Transportation Security Administration when the agency was part of the Department of Transportation.
The last time a Secret Service chief was tasked to head an agency with broad regulatory powers and requiring close partnership with industry, the experiment went awry. In 2002, President Bush named John Magaw, a former director of the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, to head the new Transportation Security Administration and manage security across all modes of transportation. Six months later Magaw was forced out by the White House amid management problems at the agency and heavy criticism from lawmakers and airport executives that he wasn’t meeting deadlines to screen bags at airports. Members of Congress from both parties complained that Magaw did not provide enough documentation to back up the administration’s request for funding. And transportation industry officials faulted him for not adapting law enforcement and security techniques to the business realities of operating airlines, trucking companies and railroads.
Earlier this month, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff named Magaw to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, comprised of experts from various levels of government, academia and the private sector who provide advice and recommendations on homeland security issues.
Some supply chain security experts say that ex-cops do not always make the best corporate or government security managers because they don’t have the multidisciplinary capabilities in logistics and transportation that are just as important to prevent crime and terrorism as law enforcement techniques.
“Trade is far more complex to understand than security,” added Susan Kohn Ross, a Los Angeles-based partner in the customs and trade law firm Rodriguez O’Donnell Ross Fuerst Gonzalez and Williams.
The Secret Service, however, promotes a culture of “thinking outside the box” and as a small agency has to work well with other local, state, federal and foreign government organizations to do its job.
At TSA, Basham oversaw the hiring of federal security directors for the nation’s 429 airports. He worked closely with Magaw as well as then-Deputy Transportation Secretary Michael Jackson, who is now deputy secretary of homeland security.
Jackson’s speech at the Trade Symposium in November on overhauling the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and other cargo security programs implemented by CBP rubbed many in the trade community the wrong way, and two industry officials expressed concern that Basham represents Jackson’s views and could change the direction at CBP.
The next commissioner will be busy working to gain control of the southwest border to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico as President Bush has made enforcement of immigration laws a top priority.
During his career Basham also was director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which provides training to federal law enforcement officers in Glynco, Ga. and Artesia, N.M.
Basham’s “extensive law enforcement career, his work internationally and within several components of the department make him a superb fit to lead CBP’s vital mission,” said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff in a statement.
Rumors had previously floated around Washington that the White House was considering former congresswoman Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., and Sam Banks, a former deputy commissioner of CBP. The nomination of Basham is further evidence of the administration’s ability to keep a tight lid on personnel deliberations.
Basham is a native of Owensboro, Ky. Basham’s status as a high-ranking DHS official already entrusted with the duty of protecting the president makes it likely he will be quickly confirmed by the Senate.
Meanwhile, Bush named Mark Sullivan, a 23-year Secret Service veteran to replace Basham as director of the law enforcement agency three days after Basham promoted him to deputy director.