U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says trucks must cross border faster
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn says trucks must cross border faster
by Vic Kolenc
El Paso Times
Posted: 08/26/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, says ways need to be found to speed truck traffic across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Getting products from maquiladoras, or Mexican factories, into the United States faster is important not only for the border and Texas economies, but also for the economies of other states where the products are headed, Cornyn said Thursday during a short news conference in front of the Downtown headquarters of Secure Origins.
Cornyn visited Secure Origins' operations center and heard a presentation by Hector Holguin, the company's CEO, about its development of high-tech solutions to move truck traffic across the border more quickly.
Holguin said his company has spent several years and $7 million, including $2 million from the state of Texas, to develop a system for clearing truck bottlenecks at international bridges along the border. It often takes trucks several hours to get across the border into the United States, he said. Much of that is due to bottlenecks on the Mexican side of the international crossings, he said.
Holguin said he expects that a project using his company's solutions will be used soon by the federal governments of both the United States and Mexico.
Some El Paso-area business leaders also told Cornyn during his visit that the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT program, is not working well. The voluntary supply chain security program run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is supposed to help trucks in the program get across the border faster by not being subjected to the same level of bridge inspections as trucks not in the program.
Kathleen Neal, director of trade compliance for A.O. Smith Corp., which operates maquila doras in Mexico, told Cornyn the C-TPAT program would work better if more U.S. Customs personnel were available to process trucks going across the border.
Cornyn told reporters after his meeting that he has introduced legislation in Congress to provide money for more Customs and Border Patrol agents to "expedite truck traffic at the border." It also would provide money to modernize bridge facilities to make commerce flow better, he said. He did not specify how much funding is proposed in his bill.
"I haven't been successful yet because it's a little difficult to translate this into the impact it has on other states and other senators, to get votes," Cornyn said. "But I think working with my friends here (in El Paso), we will come up with a compelling case. And we won't give up until we are successful."
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Sen. John Cornyn meets with Secure Origins CEO Hector Holguin on... (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_18760013
