Border Trade Alliance, Continued Underfunding of Aged Land Ports and Border Security Initiatives

Trade Advocacy Group Presses for Border Priorities in DHS & Federal Spending Bills

By Online Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Washington D.C. July 1, 2009 - Border Trade Alliance (BTA), the leading tri-lateral advocacy organization representing North American border communities and trade, is pressing the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to ensure secure trade and travel at our borders is made a priority, in-line with the $830 billion in annual economic activity it generates, in upcoming federal spending bills.

Currently, the House and Senate versions of the FY10 DHS Appropriations bill are absent funding for critical land port infrastructure upgrades and may fail to match the President’s budget request for previously mandated border security initiatives. This combination of budgetary shortfalls threatens to undermine the secure movement of more than 45.7 million pedestrians, 10.7 million commercial trucks, and 107.5 million personal vehicles - to a sum of over 3/4 of a trillion in economic activity at our land borders. In 2008, Michigan alone handled nearly $67 billion in surface trade with Canada.

Most U.S. land ports were built half a century or more ago without the adequate infrastructure to handle the tremendous growth in trade and implementation of the many layers of security now in place at all U.S. land ports of entry. BTA is urging Congress to address the continued need for more capacity on our bridges, more cargo and passenger lanes at our land ports of entry, and a greater number of staffed inspection booths to securely and efficiently facilitate the tremendous volume of trade and travel at our ports.

“Clearly, with studies showing that U.S-Mexico cross-border delays cost $716 million in output losses and 3,600 jobs in labor losses in California alone, solutions to these problems would pay for themselves.â€