Today Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) addressed his transportation priorities in the just-released draft of the long-term Surface Transportation Reauthorization & Reform Act of 2015. The bill offers a long-term extension of highway and transit funding authority through the Highway Trust Fund. The fund needs to be reauthorized by Congress by October 29.

 

The bill makes the important change of extending freight corridors to key ports of entry along the border, including Laredo. Congressman Cuellar has consistently advocated to secure transportation and infrastructure dollars for Laredo and the Texas border region. Currently, the national highway freight network misses key ports of entry, including Laredo, with its cap of 27,000 miles. However, this bill will increase the cap to 41,000 miles and absorb the stretch of Interstate Highway 35 between the Laredo port of entry and San Antonio, along with other key stretches of road across the country.

 

“I thank Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA-9) of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for his leadership and for including these provisions in the highway bill,” Congressman Cuellar said. “I also thank Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4). I look forward to working with them both to improve this important bill.

 

“I appreciate Chairman Shuster’s commitment to understanding the transportation issues that affect my district. Last year he visited Texas and traveled with me down I-35 to see what an oversight it was to leave it out of the freight network. Forty percent of all land traffic between the U.S. and Mexico passes through Laredo and ends up on I-35. Laredo is home to the nation’s largest inland port, which services over 12,000 daily commercial truck crossings and 1,500 daily rail crossings. Nearly enough trucks cross the border at Laredo every year to wrap around the earth twice.”

 

The bill also includes a new Surface Transportation Block Grant Program which allows border infrastructure projects to compete for grants nationwide.  While it’s good to see border infrastructure included in this grant program, it falls short of the bill Congressman Cuellar introduced earlier this year with Representatives Hurd and McCaul, which would allow states to set aside funds specifically for border infrastructure projects. This program would provide needed certainty for improvements along the border, including at the Laredo port of entry.

 

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is expected to take up the highway bill Thursday.