EYE ON TRUCKING: Mexico truck hearing in-‘tense’ as senator rakes DOT over coals

By LYNDON FINNEY
The Trucker Staff

4/2/2008

Modern English is said to be the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy.

The Greek language?

While many of our modern English words are taken from the Greek language, about the only time you hear anyone refer to Greek is during a Sunday sermon or when someone says to you “that sounds like Greek to me.”

Greek indeed is an intricate, precise language, and it might have been nice if Congress could have written the recent “stop-the-Mexico truck program” in Greek instead of English.

Then there would be no doubt about the meaning of “establish.”

By this time, everyone knows that Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) are embroiled in nothing short of a controversy over the Mexico truck pilot program.

It all started when Congress included an amendment in the 2008 omnibus spending bill that President Bush signed into law last December.

In a subsection of the appropriations act for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and related agencies, Congress put it this way:

“None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico.”

The keyword here is “establish.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interpreted the word “establish” to be in the present/future tense.

No, no, Dorgan and his colleague said, we meant past, present and future tense.

Oh, if they had only been able to write the amendment in Greek.

Then Congress could have written the word establish in the ingressive aorist tense, which represents a past action with continuing results.

In other words, this money is not to go for any Mexico truck program that has ever been established or will be established — now or in the future.

Not long after the bill was signed, FMCSA issued the following statement:

“In accordance with the 2008 omnibus appropriations act, the U.S. Department of Transportation will not establish any new demonstration programs with Mexico. 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, while giving U.S. trucking companies new opportunities and U.S. consumers significant savings.”

Everyone, even Peters, knows the intent of the amendment.

Common sense tells you that.

Stop spending money on the Mexico truck program currently underway is what Congress meant.

We gasped when we saw the statement, but at the same time, we understand why the DOT and FMCSA put such a spin on the amendment.

Mary Peters works at the pleasure of President Bush, whose administration appears to be firmly committed to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Dorgan and his colleagues don’t.

Peters is following the letter of the law in terms of abiding by NAFTA.

Congress is trying to change the law through the back door.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the appropriate way to stop the Mexico truck pilot program is to change NAFTA.

Congress has the right to do that.

The President has the right to veto any such legislation.

We do know this: no one is going to change DOT’s position on the amendment and Dorgan and his colleagues aren’t going to budge one bit, either.

It’s time to stop this “intense” bickering over verb tenses. It’s time to stop the rhetoric, sit down around the table and settle this major disagreement amicably.

The American people and the trucking industry deserve more than they are getting from two capable leaders.