Sen. Dorgan Sees (2009) End for Cross Border (NAFTA Mexican Trucking) Program

Traffic World ^ | November 14, 2008 | Ari Natter

[flattorney]

The Obama Administration will end the Department of Transportation's cross border trucking program, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a staunch opponent of the project, predicted Friday. "Both President-elect Obama and Vice-President-elect Biden voted to end the program in 2007, and it is expected that the new administration will uphold the intent of Congress and shut down the program in 2009," Dorgan said in a statement.

The program, which allows trucks from the United States and Mexico to drive beyond commercial border zones is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement but has garnered bi-partisan criticism from lawmakers and others on safety concerns.

Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced earlier this year the Department was reserving the right to extend the program for an additional two years.

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Got your ears on Barack? - Todays Trucking; 11/25/2008

GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. -- Barack Obama’s team is getting an earful about trucking industry, courtesy of the organization that represents American owner-operators. True to form, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is wasting no time in bending Washington’s legislative ear. OOIDA’s executive vice-president Todd Spencer and his colleagues will bring a slate of driver-oriented issues to the new administration’s attention. According to a statement from OOIDA, the discussions will focus on the issues facing the trucking industry. On Spencer’s radar screen for this meeting are, among other things, the cross-border program with Mexico (which OOIDA has opposed since day one - FlA) # SNIP #

OOIDA says Spencer is prepared to encourage the Obama administration to focus on enforcing existing regulations. For example, Spencer says the lumping law that has been on the books since 1980 is not enforced at all and that brokers see very little oversight from FMCSA. “To put things in perspective, we’re 35 years old now with 160,000 members. That’s a lot of credibility. It’s not nearly as much as it needs to be for the segment of trucking that we represent to get the recognition it rightly deserves. But we’re getting there.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that, for example, the issue of Mexican trucks will be looked at completely differently with the Obama administration than it has been in the past,” Spencer said. “That’s got to be positive.”

[flattorney]

H.R. 6630
Title: To prohibit the Secretary of Transportation from granting authority to a motor carrier domiciled in Mexico to operate beyond United States municipalities and commercial zones on the United States-Mexico border unless expressly authorized by Congress.
Sponsor: Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] (introduced 7/29/2008) Cosponsors (41)
Latest Major Action: 9/9/2008: Passed House amended
9/10/2008: Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

12.05.07: James Hoffa and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters hold “Wake up America, Fight Back” border rally against NAFTA Cross-Border Mexican Trucking Pilot Program

Fire Mary Peters! U.S. Secretary of Transporation

MAR

[pissant]

Good. And build the damn fence in the meantime.

[ari-freedom]

Save America, get rid of the unions that are choking it to death

[businessprofessor]

They are going to tear down the fence not build it. They can stop the program because it will no longer be needed. We will have open southern borders.

[oldbill]

Let me see if I get this straight.

We can’t let trucks through the border, but we can let millions of illegals through.

I guess as long as they’re not in a truck.

[napscoordinator]

This is great news. They just stopped a truck from Mexico with some ungodly amount of heroin. Obama is clearly a Republican/sarc. I seriously wonder when he will act like a Democrat.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Hussein: anti-Free Trade.

[SwinneySwitch]

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.

[wolfcreek]

Well, guess that will kill the TransTexasCorridor.

Oh, I forgot, we killed that already.

[wolfcreek]

“We can’t let trucks through the border”

We let them across the border but, they get to off-load and head back home before they can kill someone.

[stan_sipple]

a silver lining! letting foreign trucks into the country is a disaster waiting to happen