04/04/2000 01:40 PM Senate L&C

        HJR 48-ACCESS ACROSS UNITED STATES/CANADA BORDER                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
CHAIRMAN MACKIE announced HJR 48 to be up for consideration.                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
MR. SCOTT PETSEL, Aide to Representative Gail Phillips, sponsor,                                                                
HJR 48 relating to the free flow of people and fair trade of goods                                                              
and services across the border between the U.S. and Canada.                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
Section 110 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant                                                                     
Responsibility Act of 1996 calls for the implementation of an                                                                   
automated entry/exit control system to record all entries to and                                                                
departures from the Unites States regardless of the person's                                                                    
nationality, regardless of the location of entry, and regardless of                                                             
the method of entry.  These controls are slated to be in place by                                                               
March 2001.  The resolution is specific to Canadians and the                                                                    
borders between the United States and Canada.                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
Currently, if you are a traveler coming from Canada, you are                                                                    
required to stop at the U.S. border and show them your "papers."                                                                
As you leave the country, you're not required to stop at the U.S.                                                               
border crossing station.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
Under Section 110, all travelers would have to stop in both                                                                     
directions and fill out detailed paperwork regarding personal                                                                   
information and trip details.  This would create quite a traffic                                                                
jam at several of the border crossing stations.  It also goes                                                                   
against years of cooperative agreements between the United States                                                               
and Canada including the Shared Border Accord of 1995 and the                                                                   
Canadian/US Partnership Forum.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
The resolution is a variation of one passed by the Council of State                                                             
Governments West late last year.  HJR 48 specifically calls for                                                                 
U.S. Congress to amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant                                                             
Responsibility Act of 1996 to provide for the exemption of                                                                      
Canadians from requirements of Section 110 at all land border                                                                   
crossing between the U.S. and Canada.                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
As background, MR. PETSEL said, Canadians spent a total of $7.3                                                                 
billion dollars in the United States last year.  Bilateral trade                                                                
between the countries was $397 billion in 1998.  In 1998 with                                                                   
Alaska alone, Canadians traded a total of $492 million worth of                                                                 
goods.  Other states have adopted resolutions of varying levels of                                                              
support for the repeal of Section 110 or the amendment to exempt                                                                
Canadians from Section 110 from the Act of 1996.  Also, on the                                                                  
federal level, there has been a lot of actions in various                                                                       
Congresses of the past to either call for the repeal of Section                                                                 
110 or the exemption of land border crossing from Section 110.  A                                                               
recent update from Congressman Young's office says that a                                                                       
bipartisan group is working right now on an agreement on how to                                                                 
approach the Section 110 issue with the interest of increasing our                                                              
capacity at borders to facilitate the free flow of tourism and                                                                  
trade.  He asked for the committee's support.                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR LEMAN moved to pass CSHJR 48(RLS) from committee with                                                                   
individual recommendations. SENATOR KELLY said that he has some                                                                 
trouble with this.  He thought the U.S. should be strengthening its                                                             
borders as opposed to weakening them.  He didn't think that most of                                                             
our Canadian friends would be a problem, but there were other                                                                   
people who get into this country through Canada.  He probably                                                                   
wouldn't support this legislation.                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
MR. PETSEL said the resolution does nothing to change the current                                                               
requirements.  It doesn't lessen them, but it doesn't add control                                                               
requirements.  In part, the resolution asks for support to exempt                                                               
Canadians from land border crossings between the U.S. and Canada,                                                               
not other borders and not other nationalities.                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
There were no objections to moving the bill from committee and it                                                               
was so ordered.