Senator: DOT is ‘arrogant and wrong’ to continue Mexico trucking program
U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan
The Trucker News Services
1/3/2008
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) took strong issue Thursday with the previous week’s decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation to continue the demonstration program allowing Mexican long-haul trucks into the United States — despite a provision in a law authored by Dorgan that he says was meant to shut the program down. In a letter to Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, Dorgan said such a response is “both arrogant and wrong.”
The provision to withhold funds to establish a cross-border program was approved in the transportation portion of the omnibus spending plan signed by the President Dec. 26.
“There are not equivalent safety standards dealing with Mexican trucks and drivers, including the sharing of safety inspections, drivers’ records and accident reports between the U.S. and Mexico,” Dorgan said. “Until that time, allowing long-haul Mexican trucks into this country increases risks on the American roadway. That’s the reason Congress has adopted my amendment prohibiting the pilot program.”
Dorgan said what appears to be the Administration’s intentional misinterpretation of that amendment flies in the face of established law, precedent and the facts.
As evidence, he presented a letter from the U.S. Senate Legislative Counsel, which drafted the amendment, reaffirming the amendment’s intent to prevent the pilot program from continuing. He also noted that the record of the Senate debate clearly shows that senators — both those in favor and opposed — agreed the amendment would put an end to any pilot program bringing Mexican long-haul trucks into the United States.
Dorgan said before the Administration started the program last September, their own Inspector General said the United States does not have adequate access to vehicle inspections, accident reports or drivers’ records dealing with Mexican long-haul trucking. Until those records exist and equivalent standards are developed, there should not be a pilot program with Mexican long-haul trucks entering the United States, Dorgan said.
If the Department of Transportation continues the pilot program that began last September, it will be clearly and directly in violation of federal law, Dorgan asserted in his letter to Peters.
Dorgan called on the Secretary and the DOT to end the pilot program allowing long-haul Mexican trucks on American roads, just as the law now requires them to do.
When asked Thursday for a response to Dorgan's letter — with his contention that the current program was now operating illegally — the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees the demonstration project, essentially reissued its statement from Dec. 27.
“In accordance with the 2008 omnibus appropriations act, the U.S. Department of Transportation will not establish any new demonstration programs with Mexico,” the FMCSA statement said. “The current cross-border trucking demonstration project — established in September — will continue to operate in a manner that puts safety first, with participating Mexican carriers subject to all safety standards required by the 2008 omnibus bill and the department, while giving U.S. trucking companies new opportunities and U.S. consumers significant savings.”
Read the Jan. 15 print edition of The Trucker for additional coverage of the Mexico truck plan.