Enrolled Bill Summary

            Current law requires the Texas Department of Transportation, on approval from the federal agencies involved in regulating border crossings, to choose a location for a border inspection station along a major highway at or near a border crossing from Mexico in the cities of Brownsville, Laredo, and El Paso so that all federal, state, and municipal agencies that regulate border crossings can be located in one place in each city. House Bill 3554 amends the Transportation Code to delete these requirements and instead require the department to erect and maintain border inspection facilities in the department's Pharr, Laredo, and El Paso transportation districts. The bill allows a municipality with an international bridge that had more than 900,000 commercial border crossings during the state fiscal year ending August 31, 2002, to set the location of a planned inspection facility that will serve the bridge to be within the municipality or its extraterritorial jurisdiction. House Bill 3554 requires the department to use intelligent transportation system technologies in any new or existing commercial motor vehicle inspection facility to expedite the flow of commerce across the border.

                Reason Given for Veto: "House Bill No. 3554 would allow the City of Laredo to bypass federal regulations and state safety objectives in selecting the location of a border safety inspection facility. Congress implemented these facilities to inspect commercial vehicles crossing the border and intended the facilities to be located at border crossings. Similarly, the Texas Department of Public Safety has selected a site near Laredo's border with Mexico to improve roadway safety.

The City of Laredo has already objected to the site selection for the border inspection facility through its lawsuit against the state and federal government. The city's desire to locate the facility some 30 miles away from the border crossing not only violates federal regulations but also would undermine highway safety.

I have consistently supported roadway safety and measures to ensure that commercial vehicles crossing our border with Mexico meet the same standards that other commercial vehicles must meet."