Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa on Monday, Sept. 10, urged the Senate to act swiftly and decisively to block funding for the Bush administration’s Mexican truck program. Hoffa said the program threatens highway safety and national security.
“Tomorrow will be the sixth anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil,” Hoffa said Monday. “I don’t see how any patriotic American could vote to allow these dangerous trucks to cross our borders and travel freely throughout our country.”
At about 12:50 CT Saturday morning, Sept. 8, the first Mexico-domiciled truck authorized under the Bush administration’s pilot program to transport cargo within the United States cleared federal inspections at the U.S. border in Laredo, Texas, bound for North Carolina. Transportes Olympic became the first Mexican carrier authorized to operate in the United States beyond the so-called commercial zone as part of the program.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government approved El Paso, Texas-based Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution as the first U.S. trucking company to operate in Mexico.
Teamsters and other critics of the program charge that it would allow trucks and drivers that do not meet American standards on the nation’s roads. Their complaints include that not enough inspectors exist to inspect every Mexican truck, lack of Mexican drug testing facilities and that Mexican trucks don’t meet U.S. safety standards. Also, they fear for American jobs, as Mexican truckers work far cheaper than their American counterparts.
Hoffa said the union would fight the program to the Supreme Court. The Teamsters, Public Citizen, the Environmental Law Foundation and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued to halt the program. “We don’t know who’s driving these trucks, and we don’t know what they’re carrying,” Hoffa said. “Weapons that could be used in a terrorist attack might be in the backs of these trucks.”
The Senate began debate Monday night on the 2008 Transportation Appropriations bill, a $104.6 billion transportation and housing funding package for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. Monday night, on a 60-33 vote, the Senate approved $1 billion to repair and replace U.S. bridges, six weeks after the Interstate 35W span collapsed in Minneapolis, the Associated Press reported. The plan, which would boost federal funding for bridge repair and replacement by 20 percent, falls short of the $65 billion the U.S. Department of Transportation says is needed for bridge repairs, AP reported.
