Administration Continues to Defy Congress on Mexican Truck Issue
I’ve reported previously on the Bush Administration’s continued efforts to cram down the nation’s throat a program allowing Mexican trucks full access to the interior of the U.S. Because the trucks and the drivers’ licensing aren’t close to U.S. standards, I have opposed this program. The full U.S. Congress approved a measure prohibiting a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) pilot program last year. But the FMCSA didn’t read the plain language of that law. Instead, FMCSA decided to bend over backwards to interpret it to authorize a one-year pilot program, and went right ahead with the very program Congress prohibited.
On July 31, 2008, the House Transportation Committee gave approval to a bill that would again prohibit funding for the program or allowing trucks into the interior pursuant to this program and would hold the pilot program to one year.
On August 4, 2008, the FMCSA announced that despite the prohibition, it will continue the program for two more years. In a brazen political move, FMCSA waited until the first day of Congress’s summer recess to announce the program. House Transportation Chair Jim Oberstar has vowed to kill the program this time.
