FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2000
CONTACT: Lisette McSoud Mondello
SENATOR HUTCHISON ADDRESSES
BORDER TRADE ALLIANCE WASHINGTON CONFERENCE
Describes progress on border infrastructure, health, education,
business capitalization
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison briefed attendees at the Border Trade Alliance's Washington Conference Tuesday on issues crucial to the border region's development, including education, infrastructure development and providing access to capital for business development.
"My highest priority in the Senate has been to shine a spotlight on critical border issues. We know our transportation facilities are strained to the limit," Senator Hutchison said. "Border residents have experienced the burdens of free trade. I am working to ensure that they enjoy its benefits, too."
Senator Hutchison told delegates to the conference that she continues to press for increased funding for the U.S. Customs Service to facilitate the smooth flow of goods back and forth across the border. Last year, at the Senator's urging, an additional $25 million was allocated so the Customs Service could hire 250 new agents and inspectors. She also has been instrumental in getting the funding for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to hire 1,000 new Border Patrol agents a year for the past four years.
From her first days in the Senate, Senator Hutchison also has been responsible for getting more than $350 million for infrastructure improvements such as water and wastewater treatment systems in border region colonias. In 1998, she wrote and passed legislation that made it possible for every dollar of state spending on colonias improvements to be matched by five dollars of federal spending.
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