The effects from the ongoing budget sequestration are already impacting operations of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) components, department officials told a House panel yesterday.

International travelers arriving into the United States are experiencing wait times of two to four hours and even longer at times due to cuts in overtime for Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPO) while Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not filling positions opened by attrition, which will likely lead to fewer arrests and seizures, the officials said in their prepared remarks before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency.

“Reduced CBPO overtime availability will continue to impede CBP’s capacity to facilitate and expedite cargo, adding costs to the supply chain and diminishing our global competitiveness that is so critical to our economy,” the officials stated.  The added that “With less than six months remaining in FY 2013, DHS simply cannot absorb the additional reductions mandated by sequestration without affecting frontline operations and the critical homeland security capabilities we have build over the past 10 years.”

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee, titled the hearing “Scare Tactics or Possible Threat” due to sequestration, which will automatically chop $3.2 billion from the DHS budget for FY ’13. In his opening remarks, Duncan said that the Obama administration’s predictions of longer airport security wait times and gaps in border security due to sequestration haven’t panned out.

“If properly planned, budget cuts due to sequestration should not be, and should not dangerously compromise our homeland security,” Duncan said at the outset of yesterday’s hearing. “Doomsday rhetoric to put fear in the American people is not the way our government should operate, especially now that most of these predictions have not come to fruition.”

Rep. Benny Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking member of the full Homeland Security Committee, agreed with Duncan that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “overstated the immediate impact of sequestration” but cautioned that the cuts are real and will hurt government employees and jeopardize the country’s “safety and security.”

Some of the impacts of sequestration, which went into effect on March 1, were modified by the continuing budget resolution that Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed in late March. The resolution provided additional funding for the Transportation Security Administration to limit the impact to its security officers, allowing the agency to maintain its screening workforce.

However, over time, the department officials warned that lines and wait times at the nation’s airport security checkpoints may increase during the busiest travel periods.