Republicans are demanding answers after learning that the federal government has been stalling on paying out the pensions for retiring Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers.
In a Nov. 1 letter obtained by The Epoch Times, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) unveiled GOP findings about the long delays in approving pension payments owed to CBP agents.
The letter is addressed to U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja.
“We have received reports of unacceptable delays in the processing of retirement paperwork for retirees from U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Biggs wrote. “These delays have resulted in months of uncertainty and financial hardship for some of America’s finest, many of whom spent decades putting their lives on the line to keep their fellow citizens safe.”
Biggs noted that while OPM public information suggests that it takes around 60 days to process a CBP agent’s retirement, OPM staff have said that the process takes closer to 90 days. But this reported figure also fails to capture the waiting times some CBP agents have endured, Biggs said.
Biggs related accounts from recent CBP retirees who “have reported waiting as long as 13 months for OPM to process retirement paperwork and begin payments of full monthly annuities.”
This uncertain waiting period can cause economic hardship for CBP retirees, Biggs said. Though they receive a partial annuity while their paperwork is being processed, and are paid what they are owed in full after successful processing, the months-long delays are leaving CBP retirees and their spouses with uncertain income.
The partial annuity received at the beginning of the process has also been reported to be extremely low for some agents, with some receiving as little as 11 percent of what they were owed while waiting months for their retirements to be processed.
The challenges that these delays cause, Biggs added, “are compounded by the fact that Americans are dealing with historic levels of inflation, exacerbated by this Administration’s policies.”
Currently, consumer prices are just under 10 percent higher than they were a year ago, with essentials like gasoline being the hardest hit. Republicans have attributed this increase to the liberal spending by Democrats in the 117th Congress. Three bills alone—the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act—have come out to a cost of around $3.84 trillion.
Biggs said that Republicans’ efforts to assist their constituents facing such delays have been “met with silence by OPM.”
“Efforts to reach OPM congressional liaisons by phone and by email have gone unanswered, and the OPM congressional portal provides congressional staff with no information about the status of cases submitted,” Biggs said.
“Federal employees, especially those who have risked their lives for this country, deserve better,” the letter concluded.
The findings by Biggs and other Republicans come amid unprecedented levels of illegal immigration via the southern border.
Americans in border towns have reported numerous encounters with drug and sex traffickers entering at inadequately defended points along the border. Several have told reporters that the problem has become so severe that they can’t leave their homes without a gun.
Republicans have blamed the record-breaking influx of illegal aliens on policies pushed by President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
It is unclear whether the delays are the result of negligence or misconduct on the part of the OPM, or if they represent a more targeted attack on Border Patrol agents.
