Mysanantonio.com - Cornyn Seeks Funds for Texas Border Ports

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Mysanantonio.com - Cornyn Seeks Funds for Texas Border Ports

By Gary Martin - Express-News

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Wednesday asked the General Services Administration to allocate a portion of $300 million in stimulus funds to improve and upgrade the busiest land ports of entry in Texas.

"Texas ports on the border with Mexico are some of the busiest in the world. It is essential that we fully resource these ports in order to facilitate legal, efficient trade with our neighbors," said Cornyn, R-Texas.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced $300 million to improve land ports earlier this year, to be distributed to ports in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Maine and Washington.

Two-thirds of the money, or $199 million would go improve the border port at Nogales, Ariz.

Napolitano is a former Arizona governor, and Cornyn said he would investigate to see if the distribution of funds is "really based on politics rather than legitimate needs."

In a letter to Paul Prouty, GSA administrator, Cornyn requested that a part of the $300 million in stimulus funds be used to improve ports in Texas, which led all states in surface trade with Mexico in 2008 with $94.1 billion in goods exchanged.

Cornyn voted against the stimulus plan that was passed by Congress earlier this year and signed into law by President Barack Obama.

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