Push under way in Congress to stave off mass layoff of federal agency in Kansas City
About 1,000 employees in the Kansas City area working for the National Benefits Center may get a one-month reprieve from a massive layoff scheduled for Friday as Congress tries to find money to fund the federal agency.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, said on Wednesday that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service agreed to extend its contract with a private company that provides staffing for the National Benefits Center in Lee’s Summit and Overland Park through June.
The National Benefits Center processes applications and other paperwork for USCIS, including those for international adoptions.
Employees of NBC in the Kansas City area were notified last week of a looming mass layoff scheduled to take effect on Friday because USCIS had decided to significantly downsize its contract with PAE, a private contractor that provides staffing for NBC, at the end of May. The USCIS cited major revenue shortfalls for the fee-funded agency amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
It would have been among the largest mass layoffs in the Kansas City area. Cleaver said in a statement to The Star that he learned of the NBC layoffs on Friday, as well, and has since spoken to congressional committees to explore ways to avoid having the NBC workers join about 40 million Americans who have lost their jobs this year.
Those discussions resulted in USCIS buying about a month’s worth of time for NBC workers to keep their jobs, as well as for Congress to find a funding solution for the agency.
“This morning, I am pleased to say that following discussions with the committees, the USCIS has extended the contract at NBC until the end of June so that Congress has a chance to look into the department’s budget shortfalls and prevent employee layoffs,” Cleaver said.
The USCIS and PAE did not immediately provide comment.
USCIS has previously forecast that it will exhaust its funding this summer after seeing a 61% drop-off in revenue that it attributed to the global pandemic. As a result, it said it was freezing hiring and looking to cut expenses, including cutting short its contract with PAE to provide employees for NBC.
On May 15, USCIS asked Congress for $1.2 billion in emergency funding to carry the agency for two years. USCIS is different than most federal agencies in that it does not normally rely on appropriations from Congress. Instead, its revenue comes from fees on immigration-related petitions and applications.
USCIS’s plan was to reimburse the Treasury for the emergency congressional funding by adding a 10% surcharge on applications.
“There is no doubt COVID-19 has been devastating to the budgets of cities, states and government agencies,” Cleaver said in a statement.
“However, in the midst of a global pandemic in which nearly 40 million Americans have lost their jobs in less than three months, Congress must do everything possible to ensure layoffs do not unnecessarily materialize. In that effort, I will do everything in my power, including working with congressional leadership and the committees of jurisdiction, to protect these jobs for my constituents and our community.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 at 3:44 PM.
