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Mexico Trucking Program Loses Funding In Senate

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - U.S.-bound trucks from Mexico hit a roadblock in Washington on Tuesday as senators stymied Bush administration plans to allow Mexican 18-wheelers to begin traveling freely into the United States as part of a 13-year-old trade agreement.

Citing safety concerns, the Senate voted 74-24 to join the House of Representatives in blocking money for a Department of Transportation pilot program to lift restrictions that keep Mexican trucks from going beyond a 25-mile border zone.

The funding prohibition would extend for the 2008 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, but the bipartisan display of opposition in both chambers of Congress raised doubts about the administration's ability to implement the program in the future.

'Tonight's decision by the Senate is a sad victory for the politics of fear and protectionism,' said John H. Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the transportation agency that oversees the cross-border program.

The Senate vote came on Sen. Byron Dorgan's amendment to a $106 billion transportation and housing bill.

McClatchy Newspapers

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