DeFazio Hits FMCSA on Mexican Trucking Plan

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) has sent a letter to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration demanding that the agency “address serious concerns about the safety of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads.”

The letter, dated Tuesday, comes in response to a report published by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General on the cross-border trucking program between the U.S. and Mexico, that showed that FMCSA was not yet prepared to launch a pilot program with the strict level of scrutiny and monitoring of safety performance mandated by Congress.

The agency has yet to transmit a report to Congress outlining the steps taken to address the shortfalls, said DeFazio, the ranking minority member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s highways subcommittee.

“To date, FMSCA has not sent a report to Congress or otherwise communicated plans to address the issues identified by the IG,” the letter stated.

“Yet the agency is moving full speed ahead. On the same day the audit was made public, FMCSA published in the [Federal Register] the application of the first Mexican carrier to successfully complete a pre-authorization safety audit,” it said.

“I fail to see how the agency is authorized to grant authority prior to meeting all statutory requirements,” wrote DeFazio, who has been a leading Congressional critic of the program.

DOT is taking comments through Thursday on the cross-border Mexican truck program’s safety audits.