Bush's Mexico-domiciled trucks plan flunks safety rules

Bush's Mexico-domiciled trucks plan flunks safety rules
6/20/07

The Bush administration is continuing to ignore the law and failing to
protect the public as it barrels ahead with a pilot project allowing
trucks from Mexico to travel throughout the United States, even though
the public disapproves of the plan, according to new data released today
by safety advocates.
Organizations representing highway and truck safety groups, labor, and
independent truck drivers joined members of Congress today to criticize
the Bush administration for ignoring federal safety laws concerning the
implementation of a pilot program allowing trucks from Mexico to travel
throughout the United States.

The groups – including Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Owner-Operator Independent
Drivers Association, Public Citizen and the Truck Safety Coalition –
released an analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT)
program showing the agency failing to comply with federal law. They also
released a recent opinion poll revealing the public’s opposition to the
plan. Overall, the groups conclude, the Department of Transportation
receives a failing grade on the pilot program.

About the “Pilot Program”

In February, the administration announced plans to conduct a “pilot
program” allowing up to 1,000 Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel beyond
the current border zones. In 2001, Congress required the
administration to put a premium on upgrading inspection facilities,
computer databases, and other safety-related requirements before opening
the southern border for long-haul trucks. The Bush administration has
still not finished implementing the safety requirements in that law, but
decided this year to rush ahead with the pilot program in an attempt to
open the border.

Hearings in the U.S. House and Senate, featuring testimony from
Advocates and Public Citizen, identified serious safety problems with
the program. On May 24, Congress approved provisions in a supplemental
Iraq War funding bill to ensure that any pilot program to allow
Mexico-domiciled trucks full access to the nation’s highways would not
circumvent safety standards or congressional oversight. The provisions
ordered the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which
is responsible for implementing the administration’s cross-border pilot
program, to obey a number of requirements that the agency is still
ignoring.

These provisions, signed into law by the president, require:

* the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to follow all
applicable rules and regulations concerning the formulation of pilot
programs and cross-border trucking;
* Mexico-based trucking companies and trucks to comply with all
applicable U.S. laws; and
* the administration to ensure that the operation of these trucks
within the United States would not have a negative impact on safety.

The groups today accused the administration of brazenly pressing forward
without meeting many of the safety provisions directed by Congress. Less
than three weeks after the legislation was signed into law, FMCSA
published a notice in the Federal Register on June 8 that in effect
declared that the agency had met all of the congressionally mandated
safety requirements to open the southern border.

New Report: Continuing Failure to Protect the Public
The report released today, however, identified every provision of law
that FMCSA has failed to comply with, including:

* failure to provide sufficient opportunity for public notice and
comments;
* failure to provide the public with information about the pilot
project;
* failure to comply with the requirements of §350 of the FY2002 DOT
Appropriations Act on the safety of cross-border trucking;
* failure to comply with requirements of the pilot program law to
test innovative approaches and alternative regulations under 49 USC
§31315(c);
* failure of FMCSA to keep its promise to check every truck every
time for compliance; and
* failure to establish criteria that are subject to monitoring
during the pilot program.

The report was released alongside a new poll conducted by the
nonpartisan Lake Research Partners, which found:

* A majority of Americans (56 percent) believe the Bush
administration’s plan to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to travel outside
the current commercial zone and throughout the United States is
dangerous.
* Majority agreement that this is dangerous for U.S. drivers
transcends gender, age, political identification and region.
* Notably, self-identified independents (60 percent) are most likely
to agree that the Bush proposal is dangerous, though majorities of
Democrats (54 percent) and Republicans (58 percent) concur.

Bipartisan legislation included in Section 6901 of the Iraq War
supplemental appropriations bill directs the DOT Office of Inspector
General to report to Congress on whether or not the federal government
is in full compliance with the truck safety law enacted in 2001.
Unfortunately, the DOT continues to select parts of that law it wants to
obey and those it chooses to ignore.

These include provisions prohibiting cross-border trucking to occur
unless the U.S. and Mexico have reached an agreement on hazardous
materials, unless there are adequate inspection facilities available for
passenger buses and unless there are cures for deficiencies in data
systems used to monitor driving violations and convictions of
Mexico-domiciled commercial operators.

NOTE: report is from AHAS
PDF: 12 pages:
www.saferoads.org/press/press2007/Pilot%20ProgramSec6901Compliance062007
.pdf