1-1 By: Chavez (Senate Sponsor - Shapleigh) H.C.R. No. 137 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 16, 1997; 1-3 May 16, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on 1-4 International Relations, Trade, and Technology; May 17, 1997, 1-5 reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; 1-6 May 17, 1997, sent to printer.) 1-7 HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-8 WHEREAS, With the advent of the North American Free Trade 1-9 Agreement (NAFTA), Texas roadways have borne the brunt of the 5,000 1-10 to 7,000 trucks that cross between Mexico and Texas daily, carrying 1-11 80 percent of all U.S. trade with Mexico; and 1-12 WHEREAS, With the total number of border crossings estimated 1-13 at 1.8 million for Texas in 1994 alone, and expectations of an 1-14 increase to eight million crossings by the year 2000, this 1-15 ever-increasing free trade is imposing an unfair burden not only on 1-16 Texas taxpayers, but on those in the border states of New Mexico, 1-17 Arizona, and California; and 1-18 WHEREAS, Overland trade traffic has not been effectively 1-19 limited to designated NAFTA corridors, and the illegal use of 1-20 county, farm-to-market, and other peripheral roads by overweight 1-21 trade vehicles has caused untold damage to roadways and created 1-22 financial hardships for county and local governments; and 1-23 WHEREAS, The Texas Department of Transportation (TXDoT) 1-24 estimates that damage to the Texas highway system from overweight 1-25 trucks costs $450 million annually and a 1994 study by the Texas 1-26 Transportation Institute found that a truck that weighs 4,000 1-27 pounds over the 80,000 pound limit could effectively shorten the 1-28 40-year lifespan of a highway to eight years; and 1-29 WHEREAS, Of the 4,800 Texas bridges on the NAFTA trade route, 1-30 28 percent currently fail to meet structural standards and if 1-31 Canadian and Mexican weight limits are imposed on the United 1-32 States, the percentage of structurally deficient bridges jumps to 1-33 64 percent; and 1-34 WHEREAS, A recent report by Shiner, Mosely, and Associates on 1-35 infrastructure requirements in the Texas border region estimated 1-36 the cost for all transportation infrastructure needed over the next 1-37 decade to be approximately $3.25 billion; and 1-38 WHEREAS, The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act 1-39 (ISTEA), authorized by Congress in 1991, provides innovative 1-40 financing options for the construction and improvement of highways, 1-41 but the funds allocated to Texas since the Act's inception have 1-42 only met 33 percent of the state's highway needs; now, therefore, 1-43 be it 1-44 RESOLVED, That the 75th Legislature of the State of Texas 1-45 hereby urge the United States Congress to create a NAFTA Trade 1-46 Impact Fund under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency 1-47 Act to provide border states and communities with funding for 1-48 transportation infrastructure for the facilitation of free trade 1-49 and NAFTA-generated passenger and commercial traffic; and, be it 1-50 further 1-51 RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 1-52 copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 1-53 the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of 1-54 the senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of the 1-55 Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 1-56 resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 1-57 memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. 1-58 * * * * *