Thread: Truckers, Reps urge Senate to stop pilot program

September 6, 2007
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SPECIAL REPORT: Truckers, Reps urge Senate to stop pilot program

Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007 – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association will stand alongside members of the U.S. House of Representatives today to ask the U.S. Senate to take immediate action against the Mexican trucking pilot program.

U.S. Reps. Nancy Boyda, D-KS, Peter DeFazio, D-OR, and James Oberstar, D-MN, will urge the Senate to act immediately to stop the implementation of the program.

The event is scheduled for noon today on Capitol Hill.

OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer will represent professional truck drivers.

As lawmakers returned to work this week in Washington, DC, following their annual August break, one of the first issues Senators face is likely to involve funding of the Mexican cross-border trucking pilot program. On Wednesday, Sept. 5, Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, announced that the Senate will begin debate on the FY2008 Transportation Appropriations bill next week.

Earlier this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives addressed the pilot program. In May, the House voted overwhelmingly, 411-3, to approve the Safe American Roads Act of 2007, legislation which would place restrictions on the pilot program and establish a process to analyze the impact of the pilot program.

The House version of the transportation appropriations bill contained an amendment offered by Reps. Duncan Hunter, R-CA, Gary Miller, R-CA, along with Boyda and DeFazio, that would cut off funding for the Mexican truck pilot program. The House version was approved in July.

This week, OOIDA issued a national action alert urging its members to contact their senators and ask them to include a similar provision in the Senate version of the FY2008 Transportation Appropriations bill to cut off funding to the Mexican truck pilot program.

– By Sandi Soendker, managing editor
sandi_soendker@landlinemag.com

http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Repo ... senate.htm

This needs to be stopped now before we all need to drive armor vehicles to protect ourselves on highways.