There are many things that have helped us to achieve our priority homeland security mission. Over the last several months, we have built a new agency that is making our borders more secure and more efficient. Since CBP was created on March 1, 2003, as one of the principal agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, we have unified all federal agencies with significant border responsibilities into one agency. We are creating what Secretary Ridge has called, "One Face at the Border" -- one federal agency for our nation's borders. Our first step toward this objective was putting a single, unified chain of command in place on March 1st. Since then, we have initiated unified passenger primary inspections for U.S. citizens at airports, consolidated passenger analysis units, and are developing specialized anti-terrorism response teams. And, we are doing more.

On September 2, 2003, Secretary Ridge announced the new "CBP Officer" position. The CBP Officer will serve at the nation's ports of entry and provide the American public, travelers, and the international trade community with "One Face at the Border." The CBP Officer will better unify and integrate the work of approximately 18,000 inspectors who came together from different agencies when CBP was formed.

Because visible symbols help signal our unified frontline, a new CBP uniform and patch will replace the three different inspectional uniforms and patches at all ports of entry. The new uniform is being rolled out now, and within approximately 8-9 months, all of the inspectional workforce will be in the CBP uniform.

Training new CBP Officers to handle primary and many secondary inspection functions in the passenger and cargo environments began in October. CBP Agriculture Specialists will perform the highly specialized agricultural inspections. In spring 2004, CBP Officer cross training for legacy Customs and Immigration inspectors will begin, and our Agriculture inspectors will have an opportunity to become either CBP Officers or CBP Agriculture Specialists. This training is in addition to the antiterrorism training we are now providing to all inspectors. As this process is completed, we will have a border that is more secure, more efficient, and better prepared to handle the diversity of potential terrorist threats.

We have substantially increased staffing levels, and there are more officers securing our borders than ever before. Over 2,900 CBP inspectors secure the northern border-up from 1,500 in 2001. We have 4,900 inspectors along our southern border-up from 4,300. I have committed to increasing the number of Border Patrol agents on our northern border to 1,000 by the end of 2003, up from 368 on 9-11. And, we have nearly 10,000 Border Patrol agents on our southern border.

We have also increased use of technology to perform our homeland security mission. Inspectors use sophisticated analytical and detection technology, now more than ever, to accomplish that mission. On our northern border, we have deployed 24 VACIS machines-up from zero on September 11, and nationwide we have deployed 134 whole container/trailer X-ray type machines-up from 45. In addition, we have deployed 8,000 personal radiation detectors and 300 radiation isotope identifiers. We have also substantially increased our automated targeting capabilities for passengers and goods, and we have created one of the most unique capabilities in the war on terrorism-the National Targeting Center-to continually improve our efforts to identify high-risk passengers and cargo that require extra scrutiny.

We have also initiated many programs that improve our border security. The NEXUS program, a secure traveler initiative, now operates at eight northern border crossings with 53,000 people enrolled. Over 4,500 companies now participate in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program, a supply chain security initiative that is the largest, most successful government-private sector partnership to emerge out of the ashes of 9-11. The Free and Secure Trade or "FAST" program operates in 28 lanes at six major commercial crossings along the northern border, and we are implementing a pilot FAST program with Mexico. And, governments in 19 of the top 20 foreign ports have agreed to implement the Container Security Initiative (CSI). CSI is already operational at 16 foreign ports, and there are plans to expand CSI to additional ports, allowing us to cover 80 percent of all oceangoing cargo containers entering our country.

These are just some of the many ongoing CBP initiatives. I think you can see that CBP is leading many of our most important Homeland Security efforts.

All of us at CBP should take pride in what CBP is doing to protect our nation from terrorism, and I am proud of our successful efforts to create a unified agency to better protect our nation's borders. I thank the men and women of CBP for their commitment to our new agency and to our priority homeland security mission, as well as to our traditional missions. Keep up the good work. Our nation and its citizens have put their trust in us, and we must not fail them.