House Limits Plan Granting Mexican Trucks Access
Vote Is a Lopsided 411-3
By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter
This story appears in the May 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The House of Representatives voted last week to impose more restrictions on the Department of Transportation’s plans to grant Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways, in a move aimed at significantly slowing the agency’s proposed pilot program.
In a 411-3 vote on May 15, the House approved a bill setting more stringent criteria and intense oversight of the program DOT announced in February.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a co-sponsor of the bill, said the legislation “will not allow DOT to conduct a one-year pilot as a ruse, while unilaterally deciding how and when to open the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The measure would require DOT to publish more detailed plans for its pilot program, including results of its safety audits of Mexican carriers, and would require greater oversight by the DOT’s inspector general, who would have to certify in advance the department has met all 22 conditions Congress set in 2001 before the border could be opened.
DOT has said it was nearly ready to begin allowing trucks from Mexico to deliver in the United States, rather than transferring loads to U.S. trucks at the border (5-7, p. 35).
A May 8 Congressional Budget Office report on the bill discussed its provisions and said the agency “expects that those requirements would be met before or during 2008.”
Oberstar said the bill provides “an opportunity to test, evaluate and learn from the impacts of allowing Mexico-domiciled trucks on our nation’s highways, but only once a strict set of prerequisites are met and only under a specific set of conditions.”
“It is our duty to require all motor carriers to meet tough safety standards and that Mexico-domiciled motor carriers seeking to operate in the United States meet these same stringent standards,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
The House Transportation Committee approved the bill May 2 by a 66-0 margin (5-7, p. 1).
“This bill is an excellent example of bipartisanship. Concern over Mexican trucks does not fall on one side of the aisle or the other,” said Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), ranking Republican on the highways subcommittee.
Earlier this month, DOT said that while it was moving forward with its pilot program, it was delaying the program’s start until the Mexican government established a process for admitting U.S. carriers. The agency said the process should be set up sometime this summer.
DOT has insisted that Mexican trucks coming into the country under its pilot program must be able to meet all U.S. safety standards, but critics have said Mexico is not capable of enforcing the safety rules.
Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said the vote was “a stunning repudiation” of DOT’s “attempt to force open the border.”
“The vote was a bipartisan check on a runaway demonstration project that lacked any public input and violated current law,” said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
Trucking has been divided on the issue of Mexican trucks, with some fleets calling for greater reciprocity and others backing DOT’s plan (see story, p. 6).
While DOT didn’t comment on the vote, a spokesman for the Mexican embassy said it was taking a dim view of the House’s action.
“While the legislative process has yet to conclude, the decision today by the House of Representatives raises questions about the commitment of most of its members to comply with international trade obligations,” Rafael Laveaga, an embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Open cross-border trucking is required by the North American Free Trade Agreement, but Mexican trucks have been blocked from full access to U.S. highways since the early 1980s.
Now the bill has cleared the House, it goes to the Senate, where it faces a less certain fate, trucking industry representatives said.
Some senators have sharply criticized DOT’s pilot plan in hearings, but stopped short of saying they would seek to block it.
“It seems unlikely that it would pass as a stand-alone bill,” said Dick Henderson, director of government affairs for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, noting that procedurally, the Senate’s rules prevent quick or easy passage of smaller pieces of legislation.
Rod Nofziger, director of government affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told Transport Topics he thought the margin of victory in the House “makes it a very attractive” bill in the Senate and, while a companion bill has yet to be introduced, “there are some logical people that certainly have already weighed in on the Mexican trucks issue” that could bring a bill up in the Senate. He declined to name any specific senator.
This story appears in the May 21 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The House of Representatives voted last week to impose more restrictions on the Department of Transportation’s plans to grant Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways, in a move aimed at significantly slowing the agency’s proposed pilot program.
In a 411-3 vote on May 15, the House approved a bill setting more stringent criteria and intense oversight of the program DOT announced in February.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and a co-sponsor of the bill, said the legislation “will not allow DOT to conduct a one-year pilot as a ruse, while unilaterally deciding how and when to open the U.S.-Mexico border.”
The measure would require DOT to publish more detailed plans for its pilot program, including results of its safety audits of Mexican carriers, and would require greater oversight by the DOT’s inspector general, who would have to certify in advance the department has met all 22 conditions Congress set in 2001 before the border could be opened.
DOT has said it was nearly ready to begin allowing trucks from Mexico to deliver in the United States, rather than transferring loads to U.S. trucks at the border (5-7, p. 35).
A May 8 Congressional Budget Office report on the bill discussed its provisions and said the agency “expects that those requirements would be met before or during 2008.”
Oberstar said the bill provides “an opportunity to test, evaluate and learn from the impacts of allowing Mexico-domiciled trucks on our nation’s highways, but only once a strict set of prerequisites are met and only under a specific set of conditions.”
“It is our duty to require all motor carriers to meet tough safety standards and that Mexico-domiciled motor carriers seeking to operate in the United States meet these same stringent standards,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
The House Transportation Committee approved the bill May 2 by a 66-0 margin (5-7, p. 1).
“This bill is an excellent example of bipartisanship. Concern over Mexican trucks does not fall on one side of the aisle or the other,” said Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.), ranking Republican on the highways subcommittee.
Earlier this month, DOT said that while it was moving forward with its pilot program, it was delaying the program’s start until the Mexican government established a process for admitting U.S. carriers. The agency said the process should be set up sometime this summer.
DOT has insisted that Mexican trucks coming into the country under its pilot program must be able to meet all U.S. safety standards, but critics have said Mexico is not capable of enforcing the safety rules.
Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said the vote was “a stunning repudiation” of DOT’s “attempt to force open the border.”
“The vote was a bipartisan check on a runaway demonstration project that lacked any public input and violated current law,” said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
Trucking has been divided on the issue of Mexican trucks, with some fleets calling for greater reciprocity and others backing DOT’s plan (see story, p. 6).
While DOT didn’t comment on the vote, a spokesman for the Mexican embassy said it was taking a dim view of the House’s action.
“While the legislative process has yet to conclude, the decision today by the House of Representatives raises questions about the commitment of most of its members to comply with international trade obligations,” Rafael Laveaga, an embassy spokesman, told The Associated Press.
Open cross-border trucking is required by the North American Free Trade Agreement, but Mexican trucks have been blocked from full access to U.S. highways since the early 1980s.
Now the bill has cleared the House, it goes to the Senate, where it faces a less certain fate, trucking industry representatives said.
Some senators have sharply criticized DOT’s pilot plan in hearings, but stopped short of saying they would seek to block it.
“It seems unlikely that it would pass as a stand-alone bill,” said Dick Henderson, director of government affairs for the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, noting that procedurally, the Senate’s rules prevent quick or easy passage of smaller pieces of legislation.
Rod Nofziger, director of government affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, told Transport Topics he thought the margin of victory in the House “makes it a very attractive” bill in the Senate and, while a companion bill has yet to be introduced, “there are some logical people that certainly have already weighed in on the Mexican trucks issue” that could bring a bill up in the Senate. He declined to name any specific senator.
