On the recordDecember 19, 2019
I support the USMCA, NAFTA 2.1, because we are doing this in a bipartisan way. I thank Speaker Pelosi and the working group and Chairman Neal and his staff for working so hard; my Texas colleague Kevin Brady and his staff for working so hard; Ambassador Lighthizer and our friends to the south, the Mexicans, for working together. My district is the epicenter of trade between the U.S. and Mexico. My city of Laredo handles 14,000 to 16,000 trailers every single day. The Laredo customs district handles 60 percent of all the trade between the U.S. and Mexico. That means more than $1.7 billion of goods flow between the U.S. and Mexico every day. That is over $1 million every single minute. Trade is good. It means jobs, jobs, jobs. I thank the committee for adding the signature environmental safeguard, the North American Development Bank. That is total, with the EPA, over $500 million for drinking water and for waste treatment plants. Members, pass USMCA. It means one thing: jobs, jobs, jobs.
