Posted on 03/22/2007 9:31:11 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Mexican trucks could have to wait longer than anticipated to haul freight deep into the United States.
The Bush administration in February announced that it would soon allow 100 Mexican trucking companies to travel beyond the current 20-mile limit for a one-year pilot project.
But a Senate panel on Thursday voted to delay the plan by requiring the administration to publish details about it and giving the public time to comment on it. The action came as part of a supplemental spending bill to pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The administration is rushing to open the border to Mexican-domiciled trucks without assuring their safety and enforcement of the law of the U.S.," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "They can't go rushing forward in opening the border without having explained what their pilot project is."
The Transportation Department said it is committed to moving forward with the program and will work with lawmakers to address their concerns.
"The Mexican trucking demonstration program will bring real benefits and real dollars to the American economy while maintaining all U.S. safety and security standards," the department said in a statement.
Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota, Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) of California and Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record) of Washington sponsored the amendment.
"There still remain very significant safety issues," Dorgan said.
He also criticized the Bush administration for opening the border to Mexican trucks before Mexico opened the border to U.S. trucks. "They were going to implement these plans for Mexican long-haul trucks in a way that was at odds with how the Mexicans were going to treat American truckers," Dorgan said.
The move to delay the administration plan was welcomed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"This is an important first step in our fight to ensure the safety and security of America's highways," said Teamsters spokeswoman Leigh Strope.
Access to all U.S. highways was promised by 2000 under the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, as was access through Mexico for U.S. carriers.
That aspect of NAFTA, however, was stalled by lawsuits and disagreements between the two countries, though Canadian and U.S. trucks travel freely across the northern border.
The Bush pilot project will let Mexican truck companies travel from Mexico throughout the United States and back. No hazardous material shipments will be permitted.
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On the Net:
Transportation Department: http://www.dot.gov
We NEED to let the Mexican trucks in to deliver the drugs...
What the he!! is Bush thinking (or smoking)? Thank God the Dem's are at least slowing it down.
"The administration is rushing to open the border to Mexican-domiciled trucks without assuring their safety and enforcement of the law of the U.S.," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "They can't go rushing forward in opening the border without having explained what their pilot project is."
It is called the incremental method.
Toward a North American Union
By: Patrick Wood
Editor, The August Review
Good evening, everybody. Tonight, an astonishing proposal to expand our borders to incorporate Mexico and Canada and simultaneously further diminish U.S. sovereignty. Have our political elites gone mad?
Lou Dobbs on Lou Dobbs Tonight, June 9, 2005
Introduction
The global elite, through the direct operations of President George Bush and his Administration, are creating a North American Union that will combine Canada, Mexico and the U.S. into a superstate called the North American Union (NAU). The NAU is roughly patterned after the European Union (EU). There is no political or economic mandate for creating the NAU, and unofficial polls of a cross-section of Americans indicate that they are overwhelmingly against this end-run around national sovereignty.
To answer Lou Dobbs, "No, the political elites have not gone mad", they just want you to think that they have.
The reality over appearance is easily cleared up with a proper historical perspective of the last 35 years of political and economic manipulation by the same elite who now bring us the NAU.
This paper will explore this history in order to give the reader a complete picture of the NAU, how it is made possible, who are the instigators of it, and where it is headed.
It is important to first understand that the impending birth of the NAU is a gestation of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, not the Congress. This is the topic of the first discussion below........snipped
http://www.augustreview.com/issues/general/toward_a_north_american_union_200608181/
Hmmmmm.....I doubt that this will slow down any of the corridors planned in this country for all those trucks from Mexico carrying containers filled with Asian goods.
It's good to hear there's going to be a snag. We just need lots more snags.
SNAG, for lack of a better word, is good. SNAG is right. SNAG works.
Great news. Thanks for posting
This news bothers me...NOT at all!!
OK Gordon. LOL!
Bend Over Bush Is In Charge. These guys need to visit the illegal barrios here in Vegas and buy themselves a Clue.
Good news. Anything to stop the open border madness.
Ping!
And more illegals.
Hey, I totally believe "our" gubmint is gonna enforce the laws concerning these trucks....don't you?
Our "all-American president" is deeply saddened at this news. He knows what Americans think of this outrage upon America, but he doesn't want to hear it, he doesn't care.
Another issue, the dollar has been slowly slipping against the Euro. The European countries are working together thus creating a greater economic system then we have. If we don't change our way of doing things and change our way of seeing the situation of the dollar will keep falling and if that keeps happen things will cost more. I think in the long run if we don't create the same system within North America we will end in a lot worse situation economically then we are right now.
It's early in the morning and I might of spelled some stuff wrong. Also I've got to run so any response or flames won't get responded to to the next day or whenever or never.
Oil and what else? Drugs?
We don't have enough bad truck drivers here already. Let's add a bunch from a 3rd world country.
The EU was formed from developed countries with a common history and no peasant class.
Mexico isn't Germany or Italy for that matter.
It is a hugely corrupt, economically strangled country with terrible law enforcement, huge drug cartels, a vast underclass of illiterates, and so many other factors that make a comparison between the EU and NAU false.
We open ourselves to the NAU, and I predict we will be overwhelmed within a decade.
It isn't about people, it is about the structure of the countries involved. The structures are not the same will not assimilate.
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