When Customs and Border Protection unilaterally suspended the Foreign Language Awards Program (FLAP) earlier this year, NTEU took quick, forceful—and now successful—steps to have CBP change its ill-considered and damaging decision.

Thanks to NTEU, the FLAP program is back in force, retroactive to the Feb. 4 date of the original CBP decision to suspend it. No eligible employee will lose so much as one penny of award money they have earned. This is a huge victory for CBP employees and for NTEU.

Immediately after CBP said it would suspend the program, NTEU took the issue to members of Congress, and most particularly to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. At NTEU’s request, Chairman Thompson raised the issue with CBP, seriously questioning its wisdom and need.

At the same time, NTEU filed a national grievance challenging the suspension of FLAP for CBP Officers and Agriculture Specialists. Interestingly, on the very day CBP had to answer our grievance, it announced its decision to rescind the suspension of FLAP.

There is absolutely no question that this would not have happened without NTEU’s swift and effective intervention. Everyone wins under the FLAP program: employees are rewarded for their use of a foreign language in the performance of their duties; travelers are assisted and made to feel welcome by having someone at their port of entry who speaks their language; and the agency mission is advanced in an efficient and effective way.

This is an excellent program, which has not only been negotiated—and now saved—by NTEU, but which is founded in legislation enacted by Congress.