Plan to Let Mexican Trucks Haul Freight Deeper Into United States Hits Snag in Senate

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

Plan to Let Mexican Trucks Haul Freight Deeper Into United States Hits Snag in Senate
03-22-2007 5:29 PM

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- 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."

Read more: http://omaha.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8O1G76O0&_action=validatearticle

[lovuian]

1. Well thank you Senate for having a brain

Mexican trucks running around not under rules and regulations and having free reign when they pay NO taxes for the roads

this is AWFUL

[Purveyor]

3. Not to mention undercutting the wages of one of the few 'non-college' degreed professions

that actually provides a decent wage, with benefits, for the middle class.

[JPZenger]

30. The one type of job they can't export, they give away

Yes, the one type of decent paying blue collar job that they have not been able to export to the Third World, they are giving away to Mexicans.

The Fed. safety officials were claiming that all of the Mexican trucks would be regularly and completely inspected by the US. A union official then testified about the fact that trucks in the US routinely go long periods without inspections.

In PA. whenever they get around to truck inspections, they end up ordering a high percentage of them off the road. The worst offenders seem to be tractor-trailer trucks hauling garbage to landfills.

[youngdem]

5. I don't want them here, but they would pay road taxes by buying gas while driving here

[w4rma]

12. I don't care. That is no advantage. Domestic, union truckers do that now. (nt)

[Lugnut]

24. I respectfully disagree

There's no advantage to allowing this. There are already plenty of unlicensed uninsured motorists driving in this country.

[Purveyor]

2. Very good news. More...

---
Democratic Sens. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Dianne Feinstein of California and Patty Murray 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.
---

[kestrel91316]

4. "....International Brotherhood of Teamsters. ...."

OT: My g-g-grandfather was a teamster back in Denver when they actually DROVE TEAMS (of horses). Census says so.

[alfredo]

29. Union busting pure and simple. How many US trucking companies

will move to Mexico just to get rid of the union?

[soothsayer]

6. good! stop this madness.

[piedmont]

7. Don't just delay it... kill it entirely.

Honestly, I think the Whitehouse plan is to throw as much shit at America as they can possibly dream up, and that their opposition will get frustrated and give up.

[Canuckistanian]

23. Dream up?

No, this has been PLANNED for a long time. Do you honestly believe that this is a spur of the moment idea?

No, the Teamsters have been a planned target for years, decades even.

[barb162]

8. Good! Bush has gone way too far

like we don't know that

[dEMOK]

9. For those of you that don't think we're headed for a "North American Union"...

Official government pages:

-- http://www.spp.gov

-- http://www.keeptexasmoving.org

Also (believe it or not), there are allot of free thinkers on Hannity's board; and there's a wealth of sources & info on this subject in this thread -- http://hannity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=119321

Note -- feel free to bypass the Corsi reference. His input is only a drop in the bucket anyway (although it's interesting that the Swift-boater would come down so hard on Bush).

[dEMOK]

10. I forgot a couple things like.. recommended, and...

Quiere comentar u obtener información en español? -- http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/comments_questions/comments_spanish.asp
Puede ver materiales del proyecto en español -- http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/publications/spanish.aspx

[pampango]

14. No one at Hannity's board seems to support this either.

"I'd also would point out that Bill O'Reilly has mentioned several times on his radio show that George Soros and some others (I forget the names he mentioned) are also for "Open Borders" for reasons of "One-World Governance" agendas.

I once heard it said liberals don't want a "One World Government." That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Yet, many conservatives say that the "One World Government" thing is just a wild conspiracy.... I'd say that at least one dominant voice in the new news media (talk radio) is apparently objecting to that notion: Bill O'Reilly, howbeit, he still won't admit the neolibs (pseudo-conservatives; or so-called "neocons") also want a One World Order (Government or Econoomic System)."

(It's funny that they think the NAU is a liberal conspiracy and that Bush is a neolib
"Has anyone bothered to tell these people Bush only has a little over a year left in his term?"

"To be replaced with another liberal or neolib who'll have a similar agenda, perhaps?"

If Bush can't count on his "Hannity" base, I wonder who he thinks is going to support him on this Mexican trucking proposal.

[sofa king]

15. I feel more sorry for the Mexicans and Canadians.

We seem to have far more ignorant assholes than both of those countries combined.

Plus, I'll have to run a lot farther should it come to that.

[dEMOK]

11. Friggin' K

[Big Pappa]

13. What kind

of insurance are they required to carry.

[Daphne08]

16. Good! n/t

[robcon]

17. This is disgusting.

Canadian trucks have been allowed in the U.S. since 1996, when we signed NAFTA. Mexican trucks were supposed to be allowed at the same time.

More than ten years later, we still discriminate against Mexican trucks but not Canadian. Awful.

[independentpiney]

19. If Mexican drivers got paid US teamster wages and benefits

on every US run and the trucks met our safety and environmental standards- then it would be disgusting. There's not quite the disparity in those standards between Canada and us as there is with Mexico.

[AnneD]

21. Not to mention...

language, driving standards, and vehicle maintenance standards. Daddy was a trucker and I live in Texas-and from all the horror stories I have heard, and my experiences-this is the last thing I want to see happen. Houston is a major shipping hub so it would be nothing short of a disaster here. Our vehicle inspectors are overwhelmed now-just imagine adding this too.
I have driven in all 3 countries. The standards in Mexico are, shall I say, loose. So lets assume that your car is hit by one of these trucks and most of your family was killed. The driver has a record but managed to grease the right palms. How do you get justice? Forget it if you want the death penalty. And I wouldn't hold my breath for financial compensation either. Where will the trial be and which laws apply. Canada and the US have a similar common law-Mexico doesn't.
Oh, and I didn't even get around to talking about crop destroying parasites that can hitch a ride more easily now than they ever could. Yeah, tell me I'm being discriminatory-but first let me kill all these fire ants and africanized bees in my yard.
NAFTA and all it's variations were a SHAFTA for us.
Not just no but hell no.

[Jacklyn75]

18. Great news all around! n/t

[OhioChick]

20. Good! n/t

[yellowcanine]

22. Individual states have the right to do safety inspections I believe - as long as they are not

"targeting" trucks from a particular jurisdiction. So all the border states need to do is set up weighing stations along major routes and make every truck stop and get weighed. Trucks that appear to have safety issues can then be checked out more thoroughly.

[pampango]

25. I assume that is how they handle Canadian trucks, so the same

should be applied to Mexican trucks.

[yellowcanine]

28. That is how most states handle ALL trucks on major roads. Mandatory weigh stations with state

troopers watching the trucks coming across the scales to spot potential safety hazards. If a truck is listing either it is overloaded, has weak suspension, or it has an unbalanced, unsecured load. Whatever the case, it is pulled off the road at that point until the problem can be corrected, if it can.

[RedEarth]

26. KR

[progressivebydesign]

27. The greedy will stop at nothing...

they will not rest until America is a third world country, with millions out of work and living in cardboard boxes.. while the psuedo royalty (corporate barons and oil scum) live like Kings and Queens. Didn't Enron teach these assholes anything???