Posted: Saturday, February 21, 2015 8:37 pm
SKY CHADDE | STAFF WRITER

One day last April, Anzalduas International Bridge Director Rigo Villarreal did something during Semana Santa — the Holy Week holidays — he couldn’t have done the previous year.

He paid, through the city and McAllen Chamber of Commerce, for more U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in order to cut down the wait times for Mexican nationals crossing his bridge on their way to San Antonio or South Padre Island.

The agency can only accept federal funding, but a pilot program — the result of legislation U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, introduced in 2013 — bent that rule. As a member of the South Texas Assets Consortium, a collection of border cities and private companies, the bridge was part of that program.

So Villarreal was able to boost staffing levels and reduce the time travelers spent waiting in their cars, which had stretched to four hours during the busiest times.

The program is temporary and only for the entities that are part of the program.

But a bill — the Cross-Border Trade Enhancement Act of 2015 — Cornyn and Cuellar introduced this month would expand it to any entity who wants to participate.

“It’s a creative way for industry to work with government to put the resources that industry needs into place,” said Bret Erickson, the president and CEO of Mission’s Texas International Produce Association, “because it’s clear the federal government has been unable to do so. We have absolutely seen the federal government’s inability to keep staffing at our ports of entry in line with the volume increases we’ve seen coming across our bridges. The act allows industry to work hand-in-hand with government.”

The program allows cities and private companies to pay CBP for overtime and then receive reimbursement from the federal government.
“It’s not within our DNA to pay additional money,” said Sam Vale, the president and CEO of the Starr-Camargo Bridge Company in Rio Grande City.

But, he said, in return for paying for these services, the local economies receive a cash influx from travelers who stay at hotels, eat at restaurants and shop at malls — essentially, as the old saying goes, spending money to make money.

Some evidence suggests it pays off. Researchers at the University of Southern California and Texas Tech University studied several ports of entry, including in Laredo and El Paso, but none in the Rio Grande Valley.

In 2014 study, researchers concluded that every additional CBP officer at a border crossing generates, on average, $250,000 to the gross domestic product and would add about two-and-a-half jobs throughout the country.
Paying for CBP officers’ overtime at Anzalduas is mostly used for special occasions, such as Semana Santa or Black Friday, said McAllen Mayor Jim Darling.

But at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, which has the facilities for commercial traffic that Anzalduas still lacks, the program is used to promote trade, too.

“Ideally, the federal government would be able to pay for all the services that are necessary at our ports of entry to move trade,” Erickson said. “The reality is that’s not the case so it becomes a business decision. This (program) allows private industry and the municipalities to make that decision, to say, ‘Hey, we know this is a busy time of year, this is peak produce shipping season and our staffing levels are inadequate. We can pony up some money and we can order additional overtime, additional coverage of our ports of entry to keep trade moving.’ The cost of that is actually very minimal when you bring it down to a per-truck cost.”

Under the program, bridge administrators have applied to expand the entrance from six to eight lanes and the exit from two to four, said Fred Brouwen, the bridge’s director of operations.

And improving infrastructure at ports of entry, Cuellar said, is critical to the economy.

“Every day, billions of dollars in commerce passes across the United States’ border with Mexico — one of our most important trade partners,” he said in a statement. “It’s important for both national security and the flow of goods between our countries that the process is as efficient and effective as possible and this legislation is an important step in that direction.”

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/congressmen-reintroduce-bill-to-promote-cross-border-trade-lessen-wait/article_c6aef8a6-ba3b-11e4-8178-57293f4fcb01.html