House bill seeks to terminate cross-border trucking program

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at terminating the Bush administration's U.S.-Mexico cross-border truck program.

House members voted 395-18 to approve H.R. 6630, a bill that would require the Department of Transportation to terminate the administration's cross-border pilot program that allows certain Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate throughout the United States.

This bill will force the administration to stay true to its word that this program will remain a short-term, limited experiment, said Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and an original cosponsor of the legislation.

Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters assured Congress and the American people that this pilot program would last one year, Oberstar said. The secretary made this pledge at news conferences and multiple congressional hearings. The DOT further cemented this commitment by publishing the details of a one-year pilot program in three separate Federal Register notices.  Oberstar said that despite these pledges and strong congressional opposition to the program, Peters announced last month that the program was being extended by two years.

This administration has been hell-bent on opening up our border, but has failed to show they can adequately inspect Mexican carriers while also maintaining a robust U.S. safety inspection program, said Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, a co-sponsor of the bill and chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. The safety of the traveling public must come first -- before the administration's fantasies about free trade. The DOT program, which started in September 2007, provided for the authorization of truck fleets from 100 pre-screened Mexican trucking firms to travel throughout the United States, well beyond the normal limit of 20 to 25 miles. The plan also provided for an equal number of U.S. truck firms to be authorized to receive reciprocal access to Mexico.

Under terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, signatories Mexico and the United States must allow access to trucks from each nation. Since the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, however, Congressional legislation and litigation spearheaded by U.S. labor unions and public safety groups have limited Mexican trucks to a narrow 20- to 25-mile-deep zone along the border.

There is nothing in NAFTA, or any other trade agreement, that abrogates the authority of Congress to exercise its power under the Constitution to change domestic law,?Oberstar said. It is time for Congress to reclaim its ability to have some bearing on the obligations contained in the surface transportation provisions of NAFTA. To date, about 30 Mexican trucking firms operating more than 100 trucks have been authorized by the DOT under the plan. As of August, the DOT listed 10 U.S. firms running 55 trucks into Mexico as participants in the program.

From its inception, the DOT pilot program has met fierce opposition from labor, trucking and public safety groups, with most critics citing concerns of American job losses and inadequate U.S. control of safety regulations on Mexican trucks and drivers.

Twice last year, both the House and Senate passed de-funding language regarding the truck program to transportation bills that were eventually signed by the White House.

In addition to terminating the current pilot program, H.R. 6630 seeks to require congressional approval for any similar future program and require the DOT to provide three separate reports on the current program.

The reports requires that the DOT, within 60 days of the bill becoming law, detail who participated in program, the number of crossings made by each participant, where participants traveled to in the United States under the program, safety violations of all program participants, a cost analysis of the entire program, and details of the measures taken by the Transportation secretary to terminate the program. 

Source: American Shipper