Senator Marshall Delivers Results For Kansas, CBP Reverses Disastrous Railway Closure

WICHITA, KS – Following intense scrutiny and repeated calls from U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. and his GOP Senate colleagues, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) announced Friday that it would resume rail operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso effective immediately.

“The Biden Administration creates one crisis and tries to ‘solve’ it by creating another crisis,” said Senator Marshall. “Monday’s ill-advised decision left millions of dollars of goods, many from Kansas, stranded on the tracks right before Christmas. We immediately started demanding answers from CBP and explaining the ripple effect of this decision on international commerce. We shared the stories we were hearing from our Kansas agriculture, rail, and automotive industries about the detrimental impact the railroad closure was having on their bottom line. I am glad the Biden Administration now understands that you can’t close down major rail routes overnight- but I do remain very concerned that international commerce and many people’s livelihoods in rural America was an afterthought to this Administration.”  

Without any prior notice, the El Paso and Eagle Pass railroad crossings were abruptly closed by DHS’s Customs and Border Protection on Monday. The move stifled international commerce and left millions worth of goods, including agriculture commodities grown in Kansas, stuck in limbo, hurting producers’ bottom lines right before the holidays.

Background:

• Since Monday, railroads have had to hold over 100 train sets, equivalent to more than 100,000 rail cars and 10,000,000 tons of commodities and goods.
• Mexico is one of the U.S. and Kansas’ top export markets. U.S. goods and services trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $855.1 billion in 2022. Eagle Pass and El Paso accounted for a total of $33.95 billion in rail traffic to and from Mexico in the last year. 
• Mexico is the top export destination for Kansas wheat. Nearly 70 percent of wheat exported is moved by rail to Mexican flour mills.
• Top exports to Mexico include: oil and natural gas products, motor vehicle products and petroleum and coal products.
• In 2021, the U.S. exported more than $2.6 billion of soybeans and more than $4.7 billion of corn to Mexico.