FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 2001

SCHUMER: DRIVERS COULD SEE SOME RELIEF FROM TRAFFIC CONGESTION AT AREA BORDER CROSSINGS

Senator details how unprecedented Northern Border staffing increases and equipment upgrades in anti-terrorism legislation - along with new action on the Peace Bridge - pave way for easing chronic traffic delays at local points of entry

Area drivers could see some relief from chronic traffic delays at local border crossings thanks to Congress' authorization of an unprecedented increase in personnel along the northern border, US Senator CHARLES E. SCHUMER said today at a news conference on the Peace Bridge Plaza in Buffalo.

The anti-terrorism bill passed by both the Senate and House last week would triple Customs, Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) staff on the northern border and upgrade INS and Customs monitoring and processing technology. Along with the long awaited start of the Peace Bridge Environmental Impact Study (EIS), Schumer said these improvements will pave the way to ease some of the traffic congestion that plagues area crossings while significantly improving security along the border.

"The Northern Border is a dilemma: We want and need to tighten security. But tightening security without additional personnel to meet the traffic demands at the border will put a dent in commerce and tourism," Schumer said. "With cross-border business between Canada and the US estimated at $1.4 billion a day, there is a very real need to keep the traffic coming over the border from sitting in the kind of gridlock we sometimes have in Congress."

New "level 1" security measures put in place since the September 11 attacks have resulted in more in-depth vehicle inspections for both incoming and outgoing traffic, exacerbating traffic delays at local points of entry. On one day last week, for example, commercial vehicles going over the Peace Bridge were backed up a full mile. The hour-long waits placed the bridge among the three most delayed crossings along the northern border and among the four worst nationwide. Local officials estimate that average waits overall for commercial vehicles at the Peace Bridge are between one and two hours.

Schumer said that while the nation's heightened alert makes these traffic delays almost inevitable, years of federal inattention to the staffing and infrastructure needs of northern border facilities have made them worse than they should be. At the four Buffalo-area border crossings, there are only 40 Border Patrol guards, 85 INS inspectors and 157 Customs officials, four fewer than in 1978.

Test "For years, border policies have been unilaterally focused on the South and drug interdiction," Schumer said. "But some of the triumphs we've had in curbing the drug trade have been at the expense of northern border states. These understaffed points of entry have led to traffic nightmares that sometimes paralyze Western New York."

Although momentum had been growing in the Senate to increase federal resources at the northern border prior to September 11, Schumer said the country's new security needs prompted Congress to take unprecedented steps to reverse the historic lack of attention to the northern border. Schumer said that the $25 million Northern Border Initiative that he and other Senators representing northern states successfully inserted into the FY02 Treasury Postal Appropriations bill would be significantly enhanced by provisions in the anti-terrorism legislation passed last week.

The bill contains huge staffing increases and infrastructure upgrades along the northen border and improves law enforcement's ability to monitor border traffic. Specifically, the bill would authorize $609 million for new Border Patrol, Customs Service and INS inspectors along the northern border - tripling the number of customs inspectors from 1,773 to 5,319, INS inspectors from 490 to 1,470 and Border Patrol guards from 300 to 900, an unprecedented increase.

The bill also authorizes $100 million to improve INS and Customs technology and provide additional equipment for monitoring the US-Canadian border; $2 million to improve the fingerprint identification system for points of entry; lifts overtime caps for INS agents and Customs inspectors; and improves efforts to authenticate that visa holders are the same person at issuance and entry.

The increased border security follows the long-awaited start of the Peace Bridge EIS last week. The purpose of the EIS is to ensure that all reasonable alternatives for the bridge and plaza design are considered and that the impact of the project on the economy and environment is fully gauged. Schumer said that the start of the study is the first step toward expanding the Peace Bridge's capacity, a key part of the long-term strategy for dealing with the region's traffic delays.

Finally, Schumer said an international zone around the Peace Bridge that would improve coordination between US and Canadian border officials would go a long way towards improving border security and expediting the flow of commercial and tourist traffic.

"Taken together, all of these actions represent a huge step forward in ensuring that law enforcement is able to keep track of who is coming into the country while solving some of the region's traffic problems," Schumer said. "These provisions aren't a cure-all but they will go a long way towards balancing our security requirements with the need for a seamless border conducive to commerce and tourism."

# # #