U.S.-Mexico Border
Floor Speech
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Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be here with my colleagues today. I certainly want to thank Mr. O'Rourke and Mr. Vela and Mr. Gallego for presenting what we all believe is so critical and so important.
It's not just about border communities and border cities that acknowledge and benefit from our relationship with the border, and particularly with the Mexican border; it really is the entire States that we're representing and far beyond that. Because my colleague represented how much trade is done in other States throughout our country--we know it's important to national security--we also know it's important to our economic interest, because that trade fuels our economy, it stimulates our competitiveness, and it also reflects our cultural values. Those things are critically important, and we need to bring those into the discussion as well.
You know, we often talk here in Congress about the need to give businesses the certainty that they need, but honestly, look at what's been happening today. The budget standoffs and sequestration are doing just the opposite of what our businesses really need. In fact, Congress' inability to pass legislation is jeopardizing our greatest opportunity right now, which is economic growth, and that is our commerce along our borders.
Six million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico. Shall I say that again? Six million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico. Last year, imports from Mexico accounted for more than half of our two nations' total trade, which is about $278 billion. Sometimes we can differ slightly on those numbers, but that's about what it is. That trade relies on modern infrastructure, it relies on roads, and it relies on ports of entry that can accommodate the enormous volume of goods coming through every single day.
But what's the reality today? Well, the reality is that our ports of entry are in various states of disarray because of underfunding for improvement and modernization projects. Our ports do not have the capacity to meet this demand, meaning that often people have to wait up to at least 2 1/2 hours during the day of commerce and trucks up to 6.
You know, there's an app out there that tells users how long of a wait to expect. In San Diego, in the district, wait times on Sundays at the San Ysidro Port of Entry can reach 3 to 4 hours, and now and then it can even exceed that.
The other day, I was up early getting ready to board a plane to come into Washington from San Diego; and even at about 5:30 in the morning, at the ports of entry, the wait was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. And you know what? They were celebrating the fact that it was only that
long.
You have to come down to the border to see this. I think for folks who don't live on a border like we have in San Ysidro in San Diego, you can't even imagine how many cars are assembling there. It's pretty spectacular. And you know what? It shouldn't be this way, and it doesn't have to be this way. No modern economy can operate under those conditions. No modern economy devotes just $50 million to fund infrastructure projects for ports of entry for our entire Nation. Think about that: $50 million for all of our ports of entry.
What we should be doing is viewing our ports of entry and our borders as assets to our Nation. But instead, chronic underfunding has led to wait times that cost our country every day in total productivity loss and tax revenue. It's tremendous. Wait times translate to $7.2 billion in output loss and cost us upwards of 62,000 jobs--62,000 jobs--people who could be working if we could make our ports of entry more efficient.
Well, we do have some good news. Congress has already authorized infrastructure improvements at the Nation's ports of entry, including critical phases at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. We know that's the busiest land crossing in the world. So that's the good news that Congress has authorized that.
What's the bad news? The bad news is that Congress has refused to provide the funding necessary to break ground on those two additional phases. And you know what? That's just not consistent for what we talk about as needing a border security bill for this Nation. The fact that that is so underfunded and chaotic, by any means, suggests that we don't really think that we need to do the right thing when it comes to border security.
So let's place the need where it belongs. It belongs on infrastructure, and it belongs in trying to figure out what is it that's going to make a difference for this country. Well, certainly funding that border security will help on the border for ports of entry.
If there is one thing that this body should be able to do, that we should be able to come together on, it should be a smart investment that businesses want and workers need. I can assure you, that's what they want and businesses need.
So I urge my colleagues to get to work on a budget that supports our Nation's ports and our engines of economic growth and place the need for border security where it belongs. We know that it will help create the economic engines that we need for our future.
Thank you so much to my colleagues. I appreciate your bringing us together for this.
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