Thread: House votes to keep trucks near border

July 24, 2007, 10:40PM
House votes to keep trucks near border


Bloomberg News

Mexican trucks would be barred from traveling beyond U.S. border areas for a year under a House vote that would block a test program by President Bush's administration.

The program, which would allow 100 Mexican transportation companies to carry cargo into the U.S. beyond a 25-mile border area, couldn't begin in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, the House decided Tuesday in approving an amendment on a voice vote.

The vote is a victory for auto-safety groups and labor unions such as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that have been fighting the pilot program, saying the Mexican trucks wouldn't meet safety stan- dards.

The Bush administration planned to begin the test in April. Requirements imposed by Congress have bottled it up since then, and there is no start date, said Melissa Mazzella DeLaney, a spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Restrictions against trucks leaving border areas were struck down in 2001 by North American Free Trade Agreement arbiters, who ruled that the curbs violated the 1994 trade accord among the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 96471.html

THIS IS GREAT NEWS. I AM SURE THEY WILL KEEP TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WAYS TO LET IN MEXICAN TRUCKS, BUT FOR NOW THEY ARENT COMING IN. YEAH!!!!

Originally Posted by Jean

House votes to keep trucks near border

Fine. Now what does the Senate do?

Originally Posted by MinutemanCDC_SC

Originally Posted by Jean

House votes to keep trucks near border

Fine. Now what does the Senate do?

They better do the same or they will not stop hearing from us.

Teamsters Praise House for Blocking Cross-Border Trucking Program
Hoffa Says Bush Administration Needs To Get It Right


WASHINGTON, July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Teamsters Union strongly endorses the House of Representatives' move today to block the Bush administration's cross-border trucking program.

The House voted by voice vote to amend the Transportation-HUD 2008 appropriations bill by limiting funding for the pilot project. The amendment had bipartisan support, with sponsorship by Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., Gary Miller, R-Calif., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

"The Transportation Department needs to get it right before throwing open our borders to Mexican trucks," Hoffa said. "The Bush administration has been too eager to endanger the driving public by rushing headlong into this risky pilot project."

Several weeks ago, Congress approved provisions in the War Supplemental legislation that laid out specific safety requirements before Mexican trucks can travel beyond the border zone. Despite the law, the Transportation Department is moving forward with its plan to let potentially dangerous trucks travel freely on U.S. highways.

Among the reasons the Teamsters oppose the pilot program:
-- There is no certified laboratory in Mexico that can test drug and
alcohol samples.
-- Mexico does not enforce hours-of-service regulations.
-- The Mexican Commercial Drivers License (CDL) has questionable medical
standards and no real assurance that the license is authentic.
-- State databases in the U.S. do not adequately track Mexican drivers'
history. For example, the Transportation Department Office of Inspector
General has reported that more than 40,000 traffic violations by
Mexican drivers hadn't been entered into the State of Texas' database.

The Senate has not passed its version of the appropriations bill.


Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada.

Website: http://www.teamster.org/

http://sev.prnewswire.com/transportatio ... 007-1.html

MEXICAN TRUCKS SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE USA. NEVER. THEY CAN TRANSFER THEIR LOAD TO AMERICAN DRIVERS AT THE BORDER. WE HAVE PLENTY OF TRUCK DRIVERS. AND BTW, THIS IS A JOB THAT AMERICANS WILL DO.

Posted on ALIPAC on Monday, July 30 @ 15:10:21 CDT

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is prepared to impose tariffs on U.S. goods unless the U.S. fulfills an agreement to let Mexican trucks carry goods across the border, Transportation and Communications Minister Luis Tellez said.

Tellez, responding to a July 24 vote by the U.S. House of Representatives to delay the start of a trial cross-border trucking program, said the North American Free Trade Agreement permits retaliatory tariffs. The House voted to limit Mexican trucks for a year to a zone within 25 miles of the border.

President Bush had agreed to start the plan in April.


7/28/2007
Business briefs AZ Star Net News
Tuscon, AZ

"Should the U.S. Senate affirm the House decision, we will have no option but to take retaliatory commercial measures against the U.S.," Tellez said.