ShawneeDispatch.com

Topeka - Agreements with Mexico and Canada are setting the stage for construction of a huge highway that will gobble up Kansans' property and jeopardize U.S. security, representatives from a wide range of groups said Monday.

"Through incrementalism, apathy and inattention, our national sovereignty is being sacrificed on a cross of greed, socialism and globalism," said state Rep. Judy Morrison, R-Shawnee.

Morrison has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 5033 urging Congress to withdraw from further participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement and Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

At a hearing before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, truckers, labor officials and lawmakers and advocates from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas urged approval of the resolution.

Committee Chairman Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe, said he didn't know if the committee could comprehend all the information submitted on the subject and work on the measure within the last three weeks of the legislative session.

"I think I've got a little reading to do. I have not made a decision yet, but it's getting very short," Siegfreid said.

Owen de Long, a political consultant from Merriam, said plans are in the works to build a NAFTA superhighway that will be one-quarter of a mile wide to transport Asian goods throughout the United States that are off-loaded at Mexican ports.

De Long said it will be impossible to police the huge amount of cargo containers. "That's how terrorists will arrive in Kansas City," he said.

Some officials have repeatedly denied the existence of plans to build the highway.

But David and Linda Stall, founders of CorridorWatch in Texas, testified that because of NAFTA, Texas is in the middle of considering a Trans-Texas Corridor that has been criticized by landowners.