Texas Border Business
WASHINGTON — Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Congressman Will Hurd (R-TX-23), Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX-16) and Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) praised the passage by the U.S. House and Senate of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, a five-year federal highway bill including language to give states more flexibility to invest in border infrastructure. The legislation generates an average of $3.67 billion per year for the next five years for Texas transportation projects.
Introduced in the House by Cuellar, Hurd and McCaul earlier this year as stand-alone bill H.R. 3181, this language will create a Coordinated Border Infrastructure (CBI) Reserve Fund, giving border states more flexibility in how they use federal transportation funds. States like Texas can reserve up to 5 percent of statewide Surface Transportation Funds for qualified border infrastructure purposes, providing funding certainty and allowing stakeholders and border communities to advocate for border infrastructure.
“The CBI Fund will undoubtedly benefit border communities across my district and the country by dedicating more money to ports of entry,” Congressman Cuellar said. “My hometown of Laredo is host to the nation’s largest inland port, which services over 14,000 daily commercial truck crossings and 1,500 daily rail crossings. The large volumes of traffic passing over the border across South Texas place a tremendous strain on our border transportation infrastructure making it imperative that the infrastructure around our nation’s ports and trade centers remain in peak condition to ensure our economy keeps moving forward. I would like to thank my colleagues who supported this provision and worked to get it included in the bill.”
“As the top exporting state in the nation, Texas already transports more than $100 billion in goods to Mexico each year, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs,” said Sen. Cornyn. “Giving states like ours more flexibility to invest in infrastructure along the border has the potential to facilitate more international trade, boosting jobs and economic growth.”
“International trade and commerce is not just important for many of the towns in the 23rd Congressional District of Texas – it’s a vital part of the economy,” said Hurd, who has more than 820 miles of international border in his district and was a member of the conference committee for the highway bill. “Providing states the flexibility to invest in the infrastructure that makes this type of commerce possible not only benefits the families who live along the border, but ultimately boosts trade for the entire state of Texas and the nation.
“Wait times at five of the busiest ports of entry along our southern border result in an economic loss of $166 million per minute,” added Congressman O’Rourke. “ The passage of this bipartisan bill means states like Texas can direct funds to repair and upgrade infrastructure at our ports of entry, resulting in reduced wait times and increased economic and job growth for communities like El Paso.”
“Our homeland security deserves our utmost attention, and that starts at our border,” said McCaul, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. “By ensuring Texas has the flexibility to invest these funds in border infrastructure, our nation will be safer while paving the way to better American access to global economic opportunities. The inclusion of this provision will also support critical jobs in my district, which exported $11.5 billion worth of goods and services in 2013. By providing this certainty in funding for infrastructure improvements, we will be able to address the problems currently being encountered at the border.”
The provision is receiving support from stakeholders on the border, who understand the importance of having secure and stable routes across the border.
“Today’s passage of a long-term transportation bill proves that Congress can still accomplish big things and in a bipartisan way,” said Jesse Hereford, chairman of the Border Trade Alliance. “This legislation is critically important for our country’s border regions, which are struggling to ensure that their infrastructure keeps pace with today’s trade volumes. The Border Trade Alliance thanks Sen. Cornyn and Rep. Cuellar, Rep. Hurd, Rep. McCaul and Rep. O’Rourke for working together to give border states like Texas the flexibility to direct transportation funding to the border region to help alleviate bottlenecks and congestion and promote the safe and efficient movement of freight.”
“Safe and efficient cross border trade is central for the economic growth of border communities such as El Paso. We see every day how much people and companies rely on our transportation infrastructure to transport goods and travel for work,” said Rolando Pablos, chief executive officer of the Borderplex Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving economic prosperity in the El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Southern New Mexico region. “We know current border crossings are not optimal and result in long wait times and the delayed movement of goods for businesses. We applaud Congress for including funding for the coordinated border infrastructure program in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, which will allow for improvements to our border transportation infrastructure and bolster economic activity and opportunities in this region.”
