SRC-MWN S.C.R. 21 77(R)   BILL ANALYSIS


Senate Research Center   S.C.R. 21
77R5193 MKS-DBy: Lucio
Business & Commerce
3/5/2001
As Filed


DIGEST

Border health conditions not only pose an immediate risk to those who live
along either side of the United State-Mexico border, but are also are a
health concern for all of the United States, and unaddressed health
concerns in this region will only continue to worsen as the border
population and its mobility increase, thereby escalating the risks to other
areas of exposure and transmission of disease. While the State of Texas has
attempted to address many of the health issues facing the border population
in Texas, binational cooperation at the federal level is essential to
addressing these health concerns. In 1999, the Texas Legislature called for
an in-depth study of the public health infrastructure and barriers to a
cooperative effort between Texas and Mexico; results of the study indicate
that differences in technology and limitations on the exchange of
technology, disparities in methods of collecting data and confidentiality
provisions that restrict information sharing, and cultural differences that
affect interaction between local and state health departments all combine
to inhibit collaboration on health issues of mutual concern. An example of
the consequences of such barriers to cooperation occurred in 1999, when an
outbreak of dengue fever in South Texas was traced back to Mexican cities
and was thought to have been brought from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Laredo,
Texas. Despite the implications for an outbreak across the border, Mexican
health officials were limited in their ability to confirm cases of the
mosquito-borne illness, and provisions in the Mexican Constitution
restricted them from sharing the results of tests performed on Mexican
citizens with Texas health officials. Similar instances have occurred where
incidences of tuberculosis, salmonella, and malaria around the United
States were found to have started in the Texas-Mexico border region. It is
in the interest of the United States to control the spread of diseases,
beginning in the places where they originate, and poverty and poor health
conditions along the United States-Mexico border region provide a large
incubation ground for diseases, however the efforts of one state or country
alone will not address conditions that are present on both sides of the
border, or legal issues that create incompatibilities between approaches,
making a cooperative binational effort vitally important. The United States
and Mexico have worked in concert in forming NAFTA and related side
agreements that address environmental infrastructure issues, creating the
Border Environment Cooperation Commission and establishing the North
American Development Bank; the success of these joint ventures suggests
that forming similar international agreements to improve the public health
infrastructure and finding ways to address the exchange of technology and
information will improve the quality of life for residents of the border
region as well as reduce the public health risks in the spread of disease.
Establishing an agreement between the United States and Mexico will show a
commitment to the issue of public health and acknowledgment that the spread
of disease is an international problem without boundaries. 

PURPOSE

As proposed S.C.R. 21 submits the following resolution:

Requires the Texas secretary of state to forward official copies of this
resolution to the president of the United States, to the speaker of the
house of representatives and the president of the senate of the United
States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to the
congress with the request that this resolution be officially entered in the
Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United State of
America.