Bush OKs Delay to Mexican-Trucks Plan

By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the June 4 print edition of Transport Topics.

President Bush last week signed legislation effectively stalling the Department of Transportation’s pilot program aimed at permitting trucks from Mexico to deliver goods inside the United States.
The additional limits to DOT’s plan, include as parts of a bill that passed the House by an overwhelming majority, were added to a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war which Bush signed May 25.
“This is a significant step forward for safety on our highways,” said Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “It is a further indication of the American people’s concern over the Bush administration’s plans to open the borders without sufficient protections for the traveling public.”
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the panel subcommittee that oversees highways and transit, said the legislation provided “much-needed oversight and public accountability to the DOT pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the U.S.”
The provisions set a number of new preconditions on the program, which DOT announced in late February (3-5, p. 1).
Among those conditions are a number of new layers of oversight, chief among them a requirement that DOT’s Office of Inspector General certify to Congress that the department has met all 22 requirements set out by a 2001 law restricting the program. Previously, the OIG had been required to certify that eight of those items had been completed.
Those preconditions included, among other items, a review of Mexican commercial driver licensing procedures, hours-of-service enforcement and additional safety issues.
The OIG had no comment on when it would begin those audits or when they might be completed.
FMCSA spokeswoman Melissa Mazzella DeLaney said, “We are working to comply with the new conditions . . .”
Under the new statute, DOT must also publish a new Federal Register notice containing more information.
The law requires that notice to include “comprehensive data and information” about the audits of Mexican carriers by U.S. officials; a list of “specific measures . . . to protect the health and safety of the public . . . and penalties for noncompliance”; specifics on how the demonstration project will enforce English proficiency and cabotage rules restricting point-to-point delivery by Mexican carriers within the United States; the standards for evaluating the pilot program; and a full list of the Mexican motor carrier safety rules DOT will accept as substitutes for U.S. laws.
The language also requires that U.S. carriers be granted equal access to Mexican highways and that the pilot comply with a U.S. law that requires that such demonstrations last no longer than three years.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) praised the reciprocity provisions, saying, “American truckers deserve the same access rights in Mexico as those afforded to Mexican truckers.” Feinstein was one of three senators who attached similar language to a previous funding bill Bush vetoed.
An agency official said DOT hoped to meet all the new requirements “before the year is out.”
“The administration remains committed to implementing the cross-border trucking demonstration program while working with Congress to make good on a 14-year promise that will greatly benefit the American economy,” DOT said in a statement following passage of the spending package.
Critics of the plan said they were happy with the outcome.
“We are extremely pleased, to say the least,” said Rod Nofziger, director of government affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. “Now, with this language, the administration is going to have to substantiate their claims that they have satisfied all those preconditions.”
Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said the bill “requires the Bush administration to address significant safety concerns before it attempts to force open the border to potentially dangerous NAFTA trucks.”
Claybrook was joined in her praise for Congress by the Teamsters union and several other advocacy groups.
The cross-border trucking program was seen by DOT as a way to begin complying with the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, which requires the United States to open its southern border to Mexican trucks.
“Politics have gotten in the way of a reasoned approach of dealing with the opportunities that this brings,” said John Ficker, president of the National Industrial Transportation League, which supports opening the border. “I don’t think it will end the discussion; we’ve got a treaty that we’ve got to honor — NAFTA.”
According to a release, both Oberstar and DeFazio, while pleased the provisions were included, feel the language “falls short” of the bill the House passed.
That bill was sent to the Senate and referred to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.