Teamsters Praise House for Blocking Cross-Border Trucking Program

The Teamsters Union strongly endorses the House of Representatives’ move today to block the Bush administration’s cross-border trucking program.

The House voted by voice vote to amend the Transportation-HUD 2008 appropriations bill by limiting funding for the pilot project. The amendment had bipartisan support, with sponsorship by Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., Gary Miller, R-Calif., and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.

“The Transportation Department needs to get it right before throwing open our borders to Mexican trucks,” Hoffa said. “The Bush administration has been too eager to endanger the driving public by rushing headlong into this risky pilot project.”

Several weeks ago, Congress approved provisions in the War Supplemental legislation that laid out specific safety requirements before Mexican trucks can travel beyond the border zone. Despite the law, the Transportation Department is moving forward with its plan to let potentially dangerous trucks travel freely on U.S. highways.

Among the reasons the Teamsters oppose the pilot program:

* There is no certified laboratory in Mexico that can test drug and alcohol samples;
* Mexico does not enforce hours-of-service regulations;
* The Mexican Commercial Drivers License (CDL) has questionable medical standards and no real assurance that the license is authentic; and
* State databases in the U.S. do not adequately track Mexican drivers’ history. For example, the Transportation Department Office of Inspector General has reported that more than 40,000 traffic violations by Mexican drivers hadn’t been entered into the State of Texas’ database.

The Senate has not passed its version of the appropriations bill.