Congress Moves to Halt Mexican Trucks Program
Congress has included a measure in a massive spending bill that would end the cross-border trucking program with Mexican begun by the Bush administration, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
The move to end the program was included in a $410 billion spending bill that passed the Senate by a voice vote Tuesday, the Times said, citing the program as one of the most contentious issues arising from the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Critics of the cross-border program, which include the Teamsters union and advocacy groups, have repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of Mexican trucks.
The program opens the entire United States to certain Mexican hauling companies, who have been allowed beyond the approximately 25-mile NAFTA zone in which they had previously been allowed to operate.
President Obama had voted when he was a senator to block Mexican trucks from operating throughout the United States, the Times reported.
