Border Patrol supervisors get overtime pay bump—at taxpayer expense.
S. 2249 — Border Patrol Supervisors Retention Act · Filed by James Lankford (R-OK) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill expands special overtime pay eligibility for U.S. Border Patrol supervisors from only those at grade GS-12 to include supervisors at grades GS-12 through GS-15. Currently, only Border Patrol agents at the GS-12 level qualify for enhanced overtime compensation; the bill extends that benefit to higher-ranking supervisors (GS-13, GS-14, GS-15) to improve retention of experienced leadership.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward amendment to federal overtime pay law affecting a specific occupational group. It expands eligibility for an existing benefit program without introducing new mechanisms or policy frameworks.
What the text implies
- Expansion may set precedent for similar overtime-pay eligibility increases for other federal law-enforcement or supervisory grades, potentially cascading costs across DHS and other agencies.
- No sunset or review mechanism; once enacted, the expanded eligibility becomes permanent baseline, making future cost control more difficult.
- Bill does not specify funding source or appropriations offset, implicitly requiring absorption into existing DHS budget or supplemental appropriations.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill improves retention of experienced Border Patrol leadership, which may enhance border security operations and public safety. However, it increases federal payroll costs without offsetting revenue or spending reductions, placing the cost on taxpayers; the benefit flows primarily to a narrow occupational group (roughly 1,000–2,000 supervisors) rather than the general public.
Who stands to gain
- U.S. Border Patrol supervisors (GS-13 through GS-15)
Named in the bill
U.S. Border Patrol, Department of Homeland Security, 5 U.S.C. § 5550(h), GS-12 through GS-15 pay grades
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 3 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
James Lankford, the sponsor, reported $368,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Border Patrol Supervisors Association — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (520 characters) on Aug 18, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Border Patrol supervisors get overtime pay bump—at taxpayer expense.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2249 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.