NAFTA Superhighway stalls in Texas.

The Texas state House of Representatives has taken the first step in stopping construction of the controversial Trans Texas Corridor, a key element of the so-called NAFTA Superhighway. In a measure that passed the House on April 10, representatives voted to place a two-year moratorium on construction of toll roads in the state. According to the Brenham (Texas) Banner-Press, the bill "would put the brakes on the Trans-Texas Corridor, a superhighway that a private firm received a contract for earlier this year."

The measure was sponsored in the legislature by state representative Lois Kolkhorst. "This is us tapping the brakes, looking before we leap ... into contracts that last 50-plus years," Kolkhorst said of the measure.

The state of Texas had previously contracted construction of the highway to the Spanish firm Cintra-Zachry, which would build and operate the toll roads of the corridor. "It boils down to whether the 10th largest economy in the world (Texas) can build its own highways or if we're going to give private equities the chance to take all the profits from Texas," Kolkhorst said, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

The measure now must pass the Texas Senate, where it has been sponsored by Sen. Robert Nichols, who formerly served on the state's Transportation Commission. "We need to call a timeout. We need to fix this problem, and we need to fix it right," Nichols said of the situation with the Trans Texas Corridor. "The current plan removes the control of your future transportation system out of your own hands. It sells the future revenues at a discount, and it's designed to extract exorbitant toll rates."