77R6687 RVH-D                          
         By Oliveira                                           H.C.R. No. 89
         Substitute the following for H.C.R. No. 89:
         By Noriega                                        C.S.H.C.R. No. 89
                             HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
 1-1           WHEREAS, Transportation legislation enacted by Congress over
 1-2     the last decade has identified 43 highway corridors as being
 1-3     nationally significant for moving people and commerce; designated
 1-4     as "high priority corridors," they include five that are located
 1-5     wholly or in part in Texas and are eligible for priority
 1-6     construction and increased funding for their Texas segments; and
 1-7           WHEREAS, The various Texas segments of High Priority Corridor
 1-8     18 and High Priority Corridor 20 are part of a proposed multistate
 1-9     highway that has been officially designated as Interstate Route
1-10     I-69; altogether, the Texas portion of I-69 is more than 950 miles
1-11     long, and the entire roadway has been federally certified as a
1-12     natural route for the trade that is flourishing under the North
1-13     American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and
1-14           WHEREAS, In its entirety, Interstate Route I-69 is an 1,800
1-15     mile corridor that will connect the Rio Grande Valley and the City
1-16     of Laredo to the Great Lakes region; the Texas segment of Corridor
1-17     18 will extend I-69 along north-south oriented U.S. Highways 281
1-18     and 77 in the lower Rio Grande Valley and connect to U.S. Highway
1-19     59 east to Houston and north to Texarkana; the Corridor 20 segment
1-20     will extend I-69 along U.S. 59 from its starting point at Laredo to
1-21     Houston and thence northward; and
1-22           WHEREAS, A Texas Senate interim committee on NAFTA in 1998
 2-1     estimated that the region surrounding U.S. Highways 281 and 77
 2-2     generates $41.6 billion in economic activity per year and that
 2-3     approximately 5.5 million people live in the 34 counties directly
 2-4     on the I-69 route; this transportation corridor is vital to Texas'
 2-5     and the United States' burgeoning interstate and international
 2-6     trade, given that Texas border crossings account for 80 percent of
 2-7     all U.S.-Mexico truck traffic; and
 2-8           WHEREAS, The expansion of the 146 miles of U.S. Highway 281
 2-9     and the 199 miles of U.S. Highway 77 that would become part of I-69
2-10     is estimated to cost $257 million and $336 million, respectively;
2-11     however, the Texas Transportation Commission states that it can
2-12     fund just 33 percent of all needed road improvements; and
2-13           WHEREAS, While Texas can draw from its federal apportionment
2-14     of interstate highway maintenance funds, National Highway System
2-15     funds, and the maximum  discretionary funds conceivably available
2-16     from the National Corridor Planning and Development and Coordinated
2-17     Border Infrastructure Programs for these projects, an infusion of
2-18     additional federal funds is needed to move forward the corridor's
2-19     date of completion; and
2-20           WHEREAS, The development of the Texas portion of Interstate
2-21     Route I-69 cannot begin until the environmental study is completed
2-22     in 2007; this time frame is not expedient enough for the Valley's
2-23     and Laredo's increasingly stressed transportation infrastructure to
2-24     continue to accommodate the significant freight traffic arising
2-25     from NAFTA; piecemeal funding of the corridor should be replaced by
2-26     funds that are substantial enough to complete its construction
2-27     years ahead of schedule; now, therefore, be it
 3-1           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
 3-2     hereby urge the Congress of the United States and the United States
 3-3     Department of Transportation to give priority funding to the
 3-4     construction of the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo segments of
 3-5     Interstate Route I-69; and, be it further
 3-6           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
 3-7     copies of this resolution to the secretary of the Department of
 3-8     Transportation, to the president of the United States, to the
 3-9     speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
3-10     senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
3-11     Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
3-12     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
3-13     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.