Today, the House passed bipartisan legislation naming the interstate-designated segments of the Texas Ports-to-Plains Corridor as “Interstate Route 27.” U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar, Ph.D. (D-TX-28) and U.S. Congressman Jodey Arrington (R-TX-19) introduced companion legislation in the House. The bill will return to the Senate before heading to the President’s desk.

“Last Congress, I secured language in the FY22 omnibus appropriations bill designating the Ports to Plains Corridor as a future federal interstate route, unlocking funding for an expansion project for a four-lane federal highway from Laredo to New Mexico. Today, the House officially designated the corridor as Interstate 27,” said Congressman Cuellar, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. “The Ports to Plains Corridor will spur economic development and create good-paying jobs across multiple sectors of our state’s economy, including trade, energy, and agriculture. Thank you to Rep. Jodey Arrington, Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Ben Ray Luján, and the Texas Congressional delegation for working with me across party lines to strengthen our state’s infrastructure, and I look forward to seeing this bill signed into law.”

The I-27 project will have substantial effects on Texas’s economy, growing Texas’s GDP by $17.2 billion and creating 178,600 construction jobs. The project will also add 17,000 long-term employment opportunities.

With this project, Laredo will become the only port of entry with access to four interstate corridors: I-35, I-2, I-69, and I-27 – a win for South Texas’s trade economy. Laredo is the nation’s largest port of entry, with 7.6 million total vehicle crossings in the past fiscal year.

The Ports-to-Plains Alliance Corridor serves as a:

• Energy corridor serving traditional resources like oil and gas, including the Bakken, Niobrara, Permian Basin, Cline, and Eagle Ford shale plays, as well as renewable resources like wind, solar, and biofuels;
• Agriculture corridor running through four of the top eight farming states and moves agriculture products to urban domestic markets, export markets on the coast, and export markets on the Canadian and Mexican borders;
• International trade corridor serving major international border crossings connecting Texas to Mexico and connecting Montana and North Dakota to Canada;
• Connectivity and economic development corridor running through and connecting small towns and rural communities in America’s Heartland; and,
• Cost-effective way to reduce congestion on neighboring highways, Interstate 25 and Interstate 35.

In 2022, Dr. Cuellar secured language in the FY22 omnibus appropriations bill to designate the portion of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor from Laredo, Texas, to Raton, New Mexico, as a future Interstate route, making it eligible for federal funding. This legislation builds on that progress, officially naming the stretch “Interstate 27.” The Senate must concur with the House amendments to the legislation before it heads to the President’s Desk.

The full text of the legislation can be found here.

To view Dr. Cuellar’s full floor remarks, click here.

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