Reaffirming a strong commitment to the United States-Mexico partnership.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our chairman, Ed Royce, for working with me to bring this measure to the floor, and I thank Congressman McCaul, the lead Republican sponsor of this resolution, as well. I am pleased to be the lead sponsor on this resolution.

After more than a decade of good progress in the U.S.-Mexico partnership, this year we have seen some things change course in a troubling way. It is a problem, and it needs to be stopped. That is why I offer this measure reaffirming our strong commitment to our relationship with Mexico. We don't want anyone there to have any kinds of questions. We believe in a strong U.S.-Mexico relationship.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank our ranking member on the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, Mr. Sires, and Mr. Castro for their efforts on this resolution and their support day in and day out for a robust U.S.- Mexico partnership.

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to overstate how important the U.S.-Mexico relationship is and the tremendous impact it has on Americans every single day. Mexico is a friend and ally. Mexico is our third largest trading partner. It is a country with which we share deep person-to- person, family, and cultural ties, and it is a country where we have painstakingly cultivated a vibrant, critical relationship between our two countries.

Over the past century, there have been many highs and lows in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Unfortunately, sometimes, recently, we have had a lot of lows with talk about building walls and other derogatory talk about Mexicans. We don't want that to continue. We want to establish and reaffirm the strong U.S.-Mexico relationship.

In 2007, I became chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. That was the same day that the Merida Initiative was announced by Presidents Bush and Calderon, which led to a new level of security cooperation between the United States and Mexico.

That effort wasn't perfect then and it isn't today. The civilian toll of Mexico's drug war is still far too high, and human rights violations at the federal, state, and local level in Mexico remain a serious problem. But what we gained from the Merida Initiative was an entirely new way of collaborating with the Mexican Government on a wide range of security issues.

Presidents Obama and Pena Nieto built on Merida's foundation, and one of the results was a remarkable achievement in the last hours of the Obama administration, which was the extradition of drug kingpin ``El Chapo'' Guzman to my hometown of New York City to stand trial. Without a strong U.S.-Mexico partnership, that would not have been possible. A decade ago, it probably would not have happened at all.

And while we absolutely don't need to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on a 2,000-mile-long wall against our southern border, what we do need is to maintain our partnership on security matters with the Mexican Government.

We want the Mexican Government to continue to reach out to us with information regarding suspected terrorists. We want to say that the Mexican Government will cooperate with us and extradite the next drug kingpin to the United States, and it goes on and on. So we cannot overemphasize just how important the U.S.-Mexico partnership is and how it keeps Americans safe on a day-to-day basis.

H. Res. 336 underscores the importance of a U.S.-Mexico relationship built on mutual respect. Mutual respect means building bridges, not walls, between our two countries; it means recognizing the vast contributions of Mexican Americans to our country and not classifying an entire population as drug dealers and rapists; it means not singling out an esteemed judge based solely on his race.

Congress has an important opportunity today to be the adult in the room and let the Mexican Government and the Mexican people know that our relationship with them is very, very important and will continue to be important. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this measure. I am pleased that we have support for this on both sides of the aisle.

I thank Chairman Royce, as always, for his cooperation and his partnership, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Torres), my good friend and colleague on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and a very valued member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, let me close on a positive note. I believe that it is not too

late to reverse course on this latest direction of U.S.-Mexico ties. At a difficult moment in our bilateral relationship, I am heartened to stand here on the House floor and listen to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle offer such robust support for the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

I again thank Chairman Royce and Mr. McCaul for their help and support of this resolution. What we need is to maintain and even strengthen our cooperation on security and economic matters with the Mexican Government. Passage of H. Res. 336 today is an excellent step. Congress really needs to lead the way.

So I thank, again, my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting this resolution, and I pledge to do everything I can to continue to enhance the very important U.S.-Mexico relationship.

I think it is important to state that this relationship is not only important to Mexico, but it is important to the United States for so many different reasons. That is why I think it is important for Congress to reaffirm its support, strong support, for the U.S.-Mexico relationship.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 336) reaffirming a strong commitment to the United States-Mexico partnership.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include any extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Engel. This is his bill. Let me also say that the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Mike McCaul, who was his primary cosponsor for this, has worked hard on this resolution. It represents a broad, bipartisan acknowledgment of the importance of the relationship between the United States of America and the country of Mexico.

The United States and Mexico share strong ties. Passage of this resolution will signal this body's commitment to strengthening our bilateral relationship with Mexico, a relationship that impacts Americans on a daily basis.

Today, the United States is grappling with challenges, just as Mexico is grappling with some challenges. We have a deadly drug crisis where more than 1,000 people a week die from opioid-related overdoses. This is a crisis that started with overprescribed pain medication here in the United States but is now fueled by heroin and fentanyl supplied by drug cartels.

We have got to strengthen our partnership with Mexico and continue working with Mexican security forces to stem the tide of these illegal drugs entering into our communities and to harden our shared border against terrorism and criminality.

This resolution also affirms the strong commercial relationship between our two countries. Mexico was the second largest export market for U.S. goods last year. It affirms our long history of cooperation on environmental and natural resource issues.

For example, this past September, our two countries signed an agreement to improve reservoir levels in Lake Mead and in the Colorado River Basin that will help prevent water shortages currently affecting Americans in the Southwest United States.

There are, of course, areas that I think we can improve the U.S.- Mexico relationship. Mexico needs to do more to combat the corruption that has taken its toll on its citizens' trust.

But this resolution comes at an important time in the U.S. with our relationship with Mexico and should signal to the people of Mexico that the people of the United States want to continue to work with Mexico on matters of mutual concern, from security to combating the illegal drug trade, to strengthening our respective economies.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the author, the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Engel, and I thank Congresswoman Norma Torres, as well, and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Mike McCaul, for their work on this important resolution recognizing the U.S.-Mexico partnership and recognizing our important economic relationship. As our countries continue to work together, this resolution signals our commitment to strengthen our ties with our Mexican neighbors.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 336, which reaffirms our strong commitment to the United States-Mexico partnership.

Mexico is our neighbor and one of our most important strategic allies. Under NAFTA and the Merida Initiative, our countries have expanded our economic and security cooperation in ways that involve almost every aspect of our lives. Our work with Mexico goes beyond the Federal Government. It is in our State and local governments. It is in our businesses and in our churches.

H. Res. 336 holds up the idea that working with Mexico has been good for our security and our economy. No one is saying that our relationship is perfect. We still have real security problems to address, especially the smuggling of guns, drugs, and money across our borders, and we need to do more--a lot more--to lift up those communities that have not benefited from NAFTA; but, on the whole, we are better off when we work together.

Working together is what makes it possible to have those tough conversations about those issues where we disagree, so we shouldn't even need to pass a resolution like this. It should be assumed. It should be common sense. But the rhetoric across this administration has made it necessary for Congress to speak out in defense of our neighbor and our ally, and we are here today speaking out.

I thank Representative Engel and Representative McCaul for their leadership, and I thank Chairman Royce for his ongoing work in bringing this resolution forward and ongoing work in the committee to ensure that we work on a bipartisan level.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution.