U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) FMA Chapter 373 accepted an invitation by the Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, to provide outside witness testimony for Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations for the USMS. This four-page letter, along with supporting evidence gathered by Jason Wojdylo and David Barnes of Chapter 373, lays bare the precarious state of staffing at the USMS. While staffing levels for the USMS seem reasonable at first glance, the testimony provided by Chapter 373 goes into detail on how “empire building” at various headquarter divisions and staff offices by systematically stripping district offices of key personnel has resulted in a deleterious effect on the readiness of district offices to carry out their missions.

The USMS Chief of Staff reported that the average district office was staffed at 69 percent capacity, meaning that district offices are expected to complete their missions with barely two thirds of the personnel considered necessary to do so. This is a result, not of a lack of funding for the USMS overall, but of the exponential growth of headquarter divisions and staff offices at the expense of district offices. While Congress authorized funding for an additional 1,000 Deputy U.S. Marshals (DUSMs) last year, a similar number were stripped from district offices and reassigned to headquarter divisions in order to perform functions outside of the USMS core mission. 

For example, “The Agency’s Investigative Operations Division employs over 600 FTEs and contractors throughout the country, all reporting through Arlington, Virginia, as opposed to the district chain of command (i.e., United States Marshal and Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal) in cities where the two groups are mere miles apart from one another.” Dozens of Marshals were stripped from district offices in order to provide security for the Secretary of Education, and never returned to the staff-starved district offices after the completion of their mission in early January 2021. Dozens more are allegedly assigned to the Tactical Operations Division, Strategic National Stockpile Security Operations, performing a function that is both important and completely outside the primary mission of the United States Marshals Service.

FMA Chapter 373 recommends to the new Director of the USMS that he “shake-up the organizational structure by issuing an immediate moratorium on hiring all but critical vacancies exclusively in district offices and immediately reassign staff in cities around the country to local district chains of command, using the tested and successful model found at other DOJ components.” Further, they ask Congress to strongly reconsider the proposal to authorize more employees, and to instead consider efforts to remove excess staff from bloated headquarter offices and return them to district offices.

The FMA National Office is proud to stand with FMA Chapter 373 on this issue, and on their many other efforts to improve the USMS. We applaud their hard work and the personal sacrifices they have made for this mission, and extend our gratitude to them.