Canadian Border

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, early this week, the administration extended its border closure with Canada for another month. Another month that vaccinated Americans can travel into Canada, but vaccinated Canadians cannot cross our border; dealing another monthlong blow to American businesses all across our northern border.

Now, I am glad to see the Biden administration taking the pandemic seriously and delivering much-needed relief in a lot of different ways, but I am not going to stay quiet about this serious, completely unnecessary harm this border-crossing closure is causing to small businesses and workers in Point Roberts, WA.

Now, as I have said to everybody who will listen, and some who, I am sure, are tired of hearing me, Point Roberts must at least have an exemption as we work to safely reopen the U.S.-Canadian border.

And here is why. For those of you not familiar with this particular part of Washington State, Point Roberts is right here. It is called an exclave community. People who live in Point Roberts, in order to get to the rest of our State, have to travel through Canada and back down to Washington State. If Canadians cannot come across the border, Point Roberts is really isolated. That is what is happening right now.

Now, let's paint a picture. You can take a boat right now from Canada to Point Roberts. You can fly across the border from Vancouver down to Seattle. But right now, because this border is closed, a Canadian family who lives within here can't go to Point Roberts for lunch, and they are sitting right here. This is this Canadian border, and this is Point Roberts.

Now, Point Roberts has some small businesses, and its entire economy cannot survive without that easy border cross for folks who live within this region. They can't count on people from down here to come up to their restaurants or to their businesses.

Their local economy depends on Canadian tourists, especially since, by the way, the only ferry between Point Roberts and the rest of Washington State is closed because of the pandemic. So people can't get up there right now. The only people who can help that community survive have to come across this border, and they can't because it is closed.

Now, this has been going on for 17 months and counting, and I have heard from so many small business owners there, including the owner of the only grocery store in town who is now on the brink of shutting down his doors for good--the only grocery store here for the people who live there and for the people close by.

Now, I really appreciate the administration's science-based approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have to follow science, and we need to follow the evidence, and I am proud we have taken COVID-19 extremely serious from the very start in my home State of Washington. But I firmly believe the evidence supports at least a narrow and tailored exception to the Canadian border closure to allow for a reopening right here for this community, Point Roberts. It is their port of entry for Canadian travel, and it needs to be open if we want those people to survive.

I have yet to be presented with a compelling reason why a border exemption for this small little community has not yet been provided.

I have spoken directly with DHS Secretary Mayorkas about this. I have talked with Jeff Zients, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, and a lot of other top officials at the State Department and White House as well. No one--not a person--can explain to me what evidence is being used to support that border restriction right there for Point Roberts.

So I am here on the Senate floor today to make sure that President Biden and his administration understand me. At the very least, we just need an emergency exemption from these restrictions for this small little Point Roberts community right here so that they can get their economy back up and running and that people there have the services that they need.

I am going to continue to press the administration on this and do whatever I can to help this community. But I want this on the record: Maintaining this ban on cross-border travel for Point Roberts is absolutely unacceptable. It should have been addressed months ago, and I will not stop until this is resolved.

Thank you.

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