House Republicans are planning hiring sprees across government as part of a sweeping budget package focused on cutting taxes, with a handful of agencies poised to receive billions of dollars to recruit, hire and retain staff.
As the Trump administration has focused on slashing federal employees across government, House Republicans are looking to carve out some exemptions to the trend in key priority areas. House committees this week are putting forward and voting on pieces of legislation that will make up the larger reconciliation package, which Congress will then be able to approve with only a simple majority vote.
In the House Homeland Security Committee, lawmakers have advanced a measure that will give Customs and Border Protection $4.1 billion over the next four years to hire 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, 5,000 new Office of Field Operations customs officers and hundreds of additional support staff. The measure also includes $2 billion for retention and signing bonuses for CBP staff and $285 million for training.
The bill would allocate more than $50 billion to CBP for border barriers and new facilities.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., vowed to get the legislation over the finish line in the House and Senate, despite Democrats universally opposing it.
“Homeland Security Committee Republicans held the line to advance budget recommendations that provide Customs and Border Protection with the resources needed to continue President Trump’s success in securing our border for years to come,” Green said.
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday marked up its part of the reconciliation package, which included $8 billion, available through fiscal 2029, for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire 10,000 new agents. It would receive an additional $858 million for signing and retention bonuses. Republican lawmakers are looking to pay for the hiring surge by charging an unprecedented asylum application fee of $1,000 and a $550 for work visa fee for some immigrants.
Under President Trump, ICE has taken an aggressive approach to immigration enforcement as the administration seeks to deliver on its promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. While the effort has led to controversial strategies, mistaken detentions and removals and significant challenges in court, it has failed to result in the pace of deportations that Trump had promised.
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