On the recordDecember 6, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) and his staff for helping to put this together. I appreciate it. I also want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany) and his staff for putting this bill on a very fast-moving track. And in particular, I want to thank my good old friend--and I say ``good old friend'' in a nice way--Chairman Kevin Brady. We go back to working together in the State legislature. We have been working in Texas on issues like this for so many years, and I certainly want to thank Chairman Brady for his work and the bipartisan staff for moving this bill quickly. In particular, I want to thank my colleagues. Mr. Hurd over here, who has a lot of border and he has got a lot of ports of entry, I want to thank him for his leadership on this bill. I also want to thank Beto O'Rourke, my friend from El Paso, who also understands, just like Mr. Hurd does, the importance of trade. I thank our Senate sponsor, Senator Cornyn, who has done a great job on this particular bill. The Cross-Border Trade Enhancement Act of 2016 is a bill that builds upon the work that Chairman John Carter and myself added in the appropriations bill back in 2013 and 2014 to ease the delays and improve the infrastructure at our Nation's land and sea and air ports of entry. As has been said, trade and travel to the U.S. has been increasing for the last 10 years.…





