Department of Homeland Security Appropriation Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. CUELLAR. I rise in support of this appropriations bill, which includes the hiring of 1,600 new CBP officers. Those are the men and women in blue that man our ports of entry. These 1,600 CBP officers will be a huge and historic step in addressing the congested ports of entries. And I thank Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Price for their leadership and a bipartisan approach to this very important issue.

In FY 2012, CBP processed more than 350 million travelers and facilitated $2.3 trillion worth of trade at ports of entry. America's ports of entry are vital hubs of economic activity. As high volumes of goods and persons move through our ports of entry, port security is an urgent priority. Therefore, this new increase of CBP officers will achieve the goal of facilitating trade and travel and boost economic development.

The southern border is one of the fastest-growing regions in North America. In fact, every day there's $1.2 billion of trade between the U.S. and Mexico. My hometown of Laredo handles about 45 percent of all the trade between the U.S. and Mexico. In fact, every day about 12,000 commercial trucks cross the bridges in Laredo. These 1,000 men and women in blue will help facilitate trade and travel at our ports of entry and will help our economy. Again, I want to thank both the chairman and ranking member for this effort.

We also have to do some enhancements to infrastructure at our critical ports. That's also very necessary. If we limit the Federal funding at our ports of entry, we need to be innovative and think outside the box. In fact, it's essential that the Federal Government explore the use of public-private partnerships, which allows the Federal agencies to partner up with local governments and private stakeholders to help fund the land port, seaport, or airport infrastructure projects. These innovative financing mechanisms, with the proper safeguards that we will add, will adequately staff, supply, construct, and rehab our ports of entry and, in turn, will make our ports more secure and more efficient.

I've been working with my colleagues, both the Democrats and Republicans, to encourage the use of public-private partnerships. In fact, I reached out to our colleague in the Senate from the Homeland Security Subcommittee, the chairwoman, Mary Landrieu, and she supports this particular concept. I look forward to working with my good friend, the judge from Texas. Both he and I agree that these are not Federal handouts but they actually allow the local government to partner up with the Federal Government and allow us to make our ports more efficient, more effective. I look forward to working with you, Chairman Carter, and with Ranking Member Price and the staff as we address this conference committee.

I ask you to support this bill.

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