Prohibiting Additional Land Border Crossing Fee Study

Statement

U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10), Vice Chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, today commended the inclusion of an amendment prohibiting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from conducting a study to add a new border crossing fee for pedestrians or passenger vehicles at land ports of entry along the northern or the southern border of the United States. Miller said:

"Border security is something that benefits the entire nation and the cost of securing our border is rightly shared by every American, not just the communities that are home to our border crossings. The cost of the fee proposed by the Obama Administration would have its most dramatic impact on border states like Michigan, and that impact would be particularly harsh in communities like Port Huron and the rest of Southeast Michigan where we are home to the Blue Water Bridge, the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. If put in place, this new fee would discourage millions of dollars in economic activity, would hurt our economy and cost our communities jobs. In order to effectively block the possibilities of enacting this new fee, I was proud to vote in favor of an amendment which was adopted in full committee to the border security bill today which would prohibit DHS from even conducting this study for a new fee.

"Canada is our nation's number one trading partner, and a vast amount of that trade occurs in Michigan. That type of friendship should be encouraged, not discouraged."

Source