Senator Ted Cruz discusses permitting reform for border bridges in south Texas

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - The expansion to one of the busiest bridges between the United States and Mexico is one step closer to becoming a reality.

On Thursday morning, U.S Senator Ted Cruz made a visit to the City of Laredo to announce the recent signing of the presidential permit needed to complete this 20 year old project.

Over 800 billion dollars in trade and commerce goes through the World Trade Bridge, which is one of four bridges along the Laredo border.

With the increase in traffic, expanding the lanes is necessary to keep with the demand but before that can be done, a presidential permit is required.

On Thursday Senator Cruz and Congressman Henry Cuellar along with stakeholders spoke about the passage they work on, part of the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Biden that is one step closer to allowing the construction of the project to start.

Typically, presidential permits are required for construction projects at border crossings.

Obtaining a permit requires an environmental review, often taking years to complete.

Congressman Cuellar said these changes to the presidential permitting process will ensure that proposed construction projects not only happen at the World Trade Bridge but also at the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge, and other bridges along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This is good news because last year there was more than 360 billion dollars between the U.S. and Mexico,” said Cuellar. “This area took about 40-percent about the trade in U.S and Mexico, so we need to expand the World Trade Bridge, we need to expand the Colombia Bridge, we need to look at the 4-5 bridge and there’s three new areas to be looking at, and keeping Laredo as number one.”

The state department has less than 60 days to submit any bridge building permit to the president.

After the permit is filed, the president has a 60-day period to grant his seal of approval, but if the department is the only entity that files for the recommendation and the president does not sign it, according to Senator Cruz, another step is taken, the permit is automatically granted “By operation-of-law”.

“Unfortunately, these 4 bridge projects have been stalled for the last three years because the Biden administration had put unnecessary bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of building or expanding,” Senator Cruz. “By April of this year we will have the presidential permit to move forward, that means more jobs for Texas, for South Texas and the entire state.”

During the press conference, KGNS asked lawmakers about the current migrant situation along the Texas border.

Senator Ted Cruz declined to comment.

Representatives involved in this expansion include Congressmen Victor and Tony Gonzalez, Congresswoman Monica de la Cruz, and Texas Senator John Cornyn.

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