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Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX28) last week was successful in adding important language in the Fiscal Year 2016 appropriations bill for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations (T-HUD) that specifies that freight corridors stretch all the way to their land ports of entry at the border. The addition of this language adds land ports to the list of critical infrastructure projects, which allows inland ports to now be funded under the National Infrastructure Investment.

 

“Investing more money to expand and improve inland port infrastructure along the border will improve our freight corridors and allow more commercial traffic through our ports, which in turn creates more jobs, and spurs economic growth,” Congressman Cuellar said. “An average of 2.8 million trucks pass through the Laredo port every single year—and that’s just Laredo, there are ports all along the border that bring millions of dollars of commerce to our communities daily. It’s important for the efficiency of all inland ports, as well as the economy of their regions to ensure the ports are well-funded.”

 

“The Border Trade Alliance applauds Congressman Cuellar’s efforts to ensure that trade corridors are defined as stretching all the way to the international border,” Border Trade Alliance Chairman Jesse Hereford said. “Our ports of entry with our trade partners Canada and Mexico are the starting points for the transit of freight throughout the U.S. and are vitally important to the competitiveness of the entire country. Making clear that trade corridors begin at the ports is a critical step in driving future infrastructure investment in the border regions. Rep. Cuellar deserves kudos from the whole cross-border trade community.”

 

The language Cuellar successfully included in the T-HUD FY2016 appropriations bill specifies that freight corridors go all the way until the Mexico border, and adds land ports of entry to the list of critical areas that need to be preserved, expanded, and improved. This addition specifies that land ports of entry, in addition to highway and bridge projects, transit projects, freight rail projects, and other port infrastructure investments can be funded under the National Infrastructure Investment and it highlights these projects as important to the United States.