Mexico Trucker Online

MEDIA ALERT: New study and “report card” to detail Bush Administration failures to comply with federal safety requirements under experimental program allowing big rigs from Mexico to travel throughout USA New public opinion poll to reveal Americans’ views of Bush plan to allow Mexican commercial vehicles beyond border zone

WHAT: NEWS CONFERENCE where organizations representing U.S. truck drivers, safety advocates and motorists will issue a “report card” and a study detailing how the Bush Administration is defying Congress in its attempt to open the southern border to trucks from Mexico. This past February, the Administration announced plans to conduct a so-called “pilot program” allowing Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel throughout the United States. Congress quickly passed legislation because of serious safety deficiencies in the proposal. A recent notice in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) indicates that the agency is quickly rushing into the program in defiance of Congress and federal laws in its efforts to allow access to all U.S. roadways for large commercial trucks from Mexico.

A new poll by the Lake Research Partners public opinion research firm will examine Americans’ views on allowing trucks from Mexico to travel beyond the current commercial zones extending about 20 to 30 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Section 6901 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act (May 25, 2007) mandates that DOT meet safety requirements in federal law before starting the pilot program.

The safety advocates’ study and “report card” will expose ways that the DOT is dodging these safety requirements. Congress imposed these mandates in order to ensure the safety of Americans sharing their roadways with these big rigs during the new experimental program that will allow up to 1000 Mexico-domiciled big rigs to travel throughout the nation.

WHEN: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.

WHERE: (Capitol Hill, Washington, DC – Room TBA)

WHO: * JAMES HOFFA, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

* JOAN CLAYBROOK, President of Public Citizen; Board Chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH)

* JACKIE GILLAN, Vice President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

* TODD SPENCER, a former truck driver who is Executive Vice President of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association

* JOSHUA ULIBARRI, Vice President of Lake Research Partners public opinion research

* SENATOR BYRON DORGAN (D-ND), Member of Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Member of Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Surface Transportation. Senator Dorgan co-sponsored the Mexican truck provisions in the War Supplemental bill.

* REP. PETER DeFAZIO (D-OR), Chair of House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit; and Member of House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection.

*REP. NANCY BOYDA (D-KS), sponsor of HR 1773, The Safe American Roads Act, which passed the House on May 15, 2007, by a vote of 411 to 3.

WHY: On February 23, US DOT announced a demonstration project to allow up to 100 trucking companies from Mexico full access to U.S. highways, but it was found to be in violation of a federal laws passed by Congress in 1998 and 2001 requiring that Mexico-domiciled trucking companies meet U.S. safety standards – such as regulating hours of service, driver training and licensing, and vehicle safety – before they are allowed access to the nation’s roadways and governing the conduct of motor carrier “pilot programs”. After House and Senate hearings exposed many safety deficiencies the House and Senate included provisions in the War Supplemental Appropriations bill directing DOT to take certain actions before implementing the pilot program. DOT is not complying with some of the most important safety provisions passed by Congress.

Federal law requires that the US DOT Inspector General monitor and review this program for legal adequacy and enforcement and to report to Congress. It also directs the Secretary of Transportation to submit a final report to Congress before the border can be opened to all NAFTA trucks. Federal law states that the Administration cannot jeopardize or degrade the safety of the American public by circumventing truck safety standards or congressional oversight in implementing this pilot program.

Safety groups, labor and independent truckers will detail ways that the Administration is doing just that.