Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff today announced funding to hire new border agents.
Sen. Ossoff announced this year’s bipartisan government funding bill, which passed Congress and has now been signed into law, includes funding to surge more border agents needed to strengthen border security, combat human trafficking, and prevent illegal drugs from crossing the border.
The bipartisan bill includes funding to hire additional border patrol agents needed to maintain a workforce of 22,000, which would be a record high. The bipartisan bill also includes resources to ensure border patrol agents receive the overtime pay to which they are entitled, which Sen. Ossoff previously fought for.
“Chaos at the southern border remains a serious threat to U.S. national security. That is why I have worked consistently to hire and deploy more CBP officers,” Sen. Ossoff said. “With the passage of this law, we will hire and deploy a record number of officers to stop human trafficking, drug trafficking, and other national security threats at the southern border.”
Sen. Ossoff continues working to strengthen border security and has worked to advance bipartisan legislation to hire and retain more border security officers.
Earlier this month, Sen. Ossoff introduced the Deploy Fentanyl Scanners Act of 2024 to help deploy scanners at ports of entry to better identify contraband, including fentanyl, being smuggled across the border through personal vehicles.
Last month, Sen. Ossoff joined a group of Senators calling on President Biden to include robust Federal funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) drug trafficking prevention initiatives in his FY2025 budget.
In January, Sen. Ossoff helped pass the bipartisan CHECKPOINT Act through the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to strengthen border security and oversight along the southern border.
Last year, Sen. Ossoff helped pass the bipartisan Securing America’s Ports of Entry Act through the U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, which would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire, train, and assign no less than 600 additional CBP officers a year, until the agency’s staffing needs are met, to secure ports of entry across the country.
In October 2023, Sen. Ossoff delivered $700,000 in additional funding for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) to supplement their evidence analysis and efforts to clear GBI’s criminal investigation backlog related to fentanyl.
Last July, Sen. Ossoff introduced the Fentanyl Trafficking Prevention Act to crack down on fentanyl trafficking online by holding social media platforms accountable for failing to prevent the sale of dangerous drugs on their platform.
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