WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will try to reinvent a program to allow Mexican trucks full access to U.S. highways.

A pilot program that allowed a few Mexican trucks beyond a border buffer zone died when President Barack Obama signed a sweeping government spending bill Wednesday. The bill barred spending on the pilot program.

But an administration spokeswoman says Obama has asked the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to work with the Transportation Department, State Department and Congress to create a new trucking program.

The U.S. prohibits most Mexican trucks from driving more than about 20 miles, or 75 miles in Arizona, beyond the border. But the U.S. agreed to lift that ban after signing the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

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