By Oliveira                                           H.C.R. No. 89
         77R1518 RVH-D                           
                             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 to the Great
1-16     Lakes region; the Texas segment of Corridor 18 will extend I-69
1-17     along north-south oriented U.S. Highways 281 and 77 in the lower
1-18     Rio Grande Valley and connect to U.S. Highway 59 east to Houston
1-19     and north to Texarkana; the Corridor 20 segment will extend I-69
1-20     along U.S. 59 from its starting point at Laredo to Houston and
1-21     thence northward; and
1-22           WHEREAS, A Texas Senate interim committee on NAFTA in 1998
1-23     estimated that the region surrounding U.S. Highways 281 and 77
1-24     generates $41.6 billion in economic activity per year and that
 2-1     approximately 5.5 million people live in the 34 counties directly
 2-2     on the I-69 route; this transportation corridor is vital to Texas'
 2-3     and the United States' burgeoning interstate and international
 2-4     trade, given that Texas border crossings account for 80 percent of
 2-5     all U.S.-Mexico truck traffic; and
 2-6           WHEREAS, The expansion of the 146 miles of U.S. Highway 281
 2-7     and the 199 miles of U.S. Highway 77 that would become part of I-69
 2-8     is estimated to cost $257 million and $336 million, respectively;
 2-9     however, the Texas Transportation Commission states that it can
2-10     fund just 33 percent of all needed road improvements; and
2-11           WHEREAS, While Texas can draw from its federal apportionment
2-12     of interstate highway maintenance funds, National Highway System
2-13     funds, and the maximum  discretionary funds conceivably available
2-14     from the National Corridor Planning and Development and Coordinated
2-15     Border Infrastructure Programs for these projects, an infusion of
2-16     additional federal funds is needed to move forward the corridor's
2-17     date of completion; and
2-18           WHEREAS, The development of the Texas portion of Interstate
2-19     Route I-69 cannot begin until the environmental study is completed
2-20     in 2007; this time frame is not expedient enough for the Valley's
2-21     increasingly stressed transportation infrastructure to continue to
2-22     accommodate the significant freight traffic arising from NAFTA;
2-23     piecemeal funding of the corridor should be replaced by funds that
2-24     are substantial enough to complete its construction years ahead of
2-25     schedule; now, therefore, be it
2-26           RESOLVED, That the 77th Legislature of the State of Texas
2-27     hereby urge the Congress of the United States and the United States
 3-1     Department of Transportation to give priority funding to the
 3-2     construction of the Rio Grande Valley segment of Interstate Route
 3-3     I-69; and, be it further
 3-4           RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
 3-5     copies of this resolution to the secretary of the Department of
 3-6     Transportation, to the president of the United States, to the
 3-7     speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
 3-8     senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
 3-9     Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
3-10     resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
3-11     memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.