FMCSA administrator's conference call on Mexico program delayed

FMCSA Administrator John Hill will make an annoucement about the Mexico truck project Thursday afternoon.
The Trucker Staff

9/6/2007

WASHINGTON — Three minutes before it was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, a conference call by John Hill, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Admininstration, to provide an update on the Mexico truck program was cancelled.

An e-mail notice to the media said a new advisory would be issued when the conference call is rescheduled.

The demonstration program was scheduled to begin Thursday, according to a conversation between a Justice Department attorney representing the FMCSA and an attorney for the Teamsters Union. The conversation was part of legal document of the Teamsters' emergency stay request. The stay was denied late last Friday.

The Justice Department attorney said an audit of the demonstration project by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation would be filed by Wednesday, allowing the project to begin Thursday.

By law, the project cannot begin until the audit is filed with the FMCSA and the FMCSA responds.

The audit had not been delivered as of mid-morning Thursday.

Meanwhile, Thursday morning the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) issued a news release saying that it was standing alongside Reps. James Oberstar, Peter Defazio, Nancy Boyda and others in asking the Senate to take immediate action against the program.

“It may be called a pilot program, but anyone who understands the full scope knows it’s a pre-ordained plan to fully open our borders, all in the name of economics and cheap labor,â€