After 36 years of civil service at the U.S Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Joe Cortez is retiring at the end of the year. Joe worked on three decennial censuses but for the last 12 years, he worked in the Foreign Trade Division (FTD)/International Trade Management Division (ITMD). Joe is currently the International Trade Ombudsman and previously the Chief for the Regulations, Outreach and Education Branch.

Joe worked tirelessly with the trade community to ensure that their concerns were addressed. In addition, he trained exporters and forwarders on complying with export regulations and resolving AES concerns. This training was maximized by Joe’s bilingual efforts with the Hispanic community assisting exporters all across the nation. He accomplished this while working with export enforcement agencies to develop export regulations that facilitated trade while ensuring that our nation’s security concerns are met. Joe also assisted the trade to resolve penalty and export enforcement issues regarding the Foreign Trade Regulations.

In addition, after 41 years of service, Brenda Jeffries is retiring. For the last 19 years, Brenda worked in the FTD/ITMD in the Regulations, Outreach and Education Branch. She played a critical role in laying the foundation in the early years of the AES compliance seminars. Over the years, Brenda has provided exceptional customer service to the trade community through emails, phone calls, data requests and voluntary self-disclosures.

With a combined 77 years of civil service, Joe and Brenda have been invaluable to the efforts of the Census Bureau. It has been a wonderful pleasure working with them over the years. We wish both of them the best on their new endeavors.

If you require assistance with any of the tasks that Joe worked on, you may contact Omari Wooden at omari.s.wooden@census.gov until the Trade Ombudsman position is filled. If you require regulatory assistance, you may contact the Trade Regulations Branch on 800-549-0595 Option #3.

Congratulations Joe! Congratulations Brenda! Have a wonderful retirement!