Senator scolds DOT chief on Mexican trucks in U.S.

Tells defiant Cabinet member in hearing, 'Your arrogance will have consequences'
Posted: March 12, 2008 5:13 pm Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A combative Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters was accused in a Senate hearing yesterday of defying a congressional vote to halt the Bush administration's controversial project allowing Mexican trucks to operate freely on U.S. roads.

"I regret supporting your nomination to be secretary of transportation," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., told Peters. "Your legal counsel is giving you bad advice that unfortunately you have willingly accepted."

Dorgan charged the Department of Transportation was "hell-bent on proceeding with this pilot program" regardless of safety concerns the agency's inspector general continues to document.

"You believe you have found a loophole, but you are making a very big mistake," Dorgan warned Peters.

"This is a slap in the face of Congress," he declared, "and your arrogance will have consequences."

Truckers' language rules unclear

Mexican drivers also can answer in Spanish
By Paul M. Krawzak
UNION-TRIBUNE U-T WASHINGTON BUREAU
March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON – Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the United States under the auspices of a pilot program are first required by law to demonstrate proficiency with the English language.

But U.S. Department of Transportation regulations allow those drivers to use a language other than English when responding to questions to prove they recognize U.S. highway signs, according to testimony yesterday at a Senate hearing.

The apparent disparity between the legal requirement and the specific regulation drew a skeptical reaction from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

“It raises the question of English proficiency, which is part of the safety issue,” he said.

Dorgan, an opponent of the program, has accused the Bush administration of not requiring Mexican truck drivers to meet the same safety standards as their U.S. counterparts – a claim that federal transportation officials dispute.

'Unsafe rigs headed your way'

Court hears challenge to Mexican truck program
Posted: February 14, 2008 12:11 am Eastern
WorldNetDaily

Mexican rigs, sometimes with hundreds of safety violations, are headed your way, according to those who are challenging the legality of a Bush administration program to let those trucks, and their drivers, roam the U.S.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments in a pair of lawsuits over the administration program that is supposed to be "testing" the procedures that eventually could be used to let thousands of Mexican rigs cruise U.S. roads.

The cases have been brought by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a coalition of the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Public Citizen.

"It makes no sense that while safety and security laws are continually being ratcheted up on U.S.-based drivers and companies, the DOT wants to allow their Mexico-based counterparts to get by with lower standards," Todd Spencer, executive vice president of OOIDA, said.

Texas-Mexico water war continues

Texas farmers to ask Canadian judge to impose sanctions on Mexico for taking Rio Grande water
February 6, 2008
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

WESLACO, Texas---- More than 40 Texas farmers, ranchers and irrigation districts are gearing up to take their long-standing water war with Mexico to the next level, which in this case is a Canadian judge.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs came to the Rio Grande Valley for a pep talk Tuesday, to reinvigorate farmers who have been fighting for three years and running up legal bills of almost $500,000.

''You roll over now and you won't be in good shape,'' Combs told a room full of farmers and ranchers.

In 2004, the farmers and ranchers sued Mexico for $500 million, arguing that their southern neighbor had shorted them on Rio Grande water from 1992 to 2002 in violation of a 1944 treaty.

In June, a tribunal operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement decided it did not have jurisdiction, stalling the case before it got started.

Most frustrating to the landowners was that the U.S. State Department intervened at the last moment and sided with Mexico.

Bush's Mexican truck babe to be 'Hasta la bye-bye'?

Transportation secretary 'breaking law' by allowing foreign vehicles
Posted: February 06, 2008 9:36 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily

Teamsters are launching a nationwide campaign to fire U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters for what they say is her "unlawful decision" to keep the American border open to Mexican trucks.

As WND reported, the Bush administration has decided to ignore a provision passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush as part of the 2008 omnibus spending bill that was intended to remove funding from the 2008 DOT appropriations bill for the Mexican truck demonstration project.

"It's a disgrace that Mary Peters is still in office," said Teamsters General President James Hoffa in a news release today. "She has broken the law and defied the will of the American people by exposing them to dangerous trucks from Mexico."

The Teamsters have created FireMaryPeters.com, a website complete with downloadable "Fire Mary Peters" windshield signs, recommended actions and an e-mail component urging citizens to ask their elected representatives to find Mary Peters in contempt of Congress.

The Teamsters have mailed a "Fire Mary Peters" bumper sticker to thousands of union members and supporters.

Mexico launches appeal challenge to U.S. import rule

By Jonathan Lynn
REUTERS
6:15 a.m. February 6, 2008

GENEVA – Mexico is launching an appeal at the World Trade Organisation in a case involving a controversial method used by Washington to calculate duties on unfairly priced imports, a Mexican diplomat said on Wednesday.

Mexico's move is the latest challenge to a system known as 'zeroing' which has pitted the United States against the rest of the WTO's 151 members, and created confusion in the WTO's own system for resolving trade disputes.

Mexico said in a filing with the WTO, dated Jan. 31, that it intended to appeal against a decision by a WTO dispute settlement panel in a case involving U.S. anti-dumping measures on imports of stainless steel from Mexico.

Glenn Beck - Mexamericanada, here we come!

Senior Juan McCain

It was an overall depressing day and to make matters worse Michelle Malkin joined Glenn to talk about how Senior McCain has some interesting campaign staff members. Juan Hernandez tops that list--one of his wonderful viewpoints includes being pro North American Union.

Bush defies law; Mexico trucks still roll in U.S.

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is going ahead with a controversial pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways despite a new law by Congress against it.

The decision to proceed with the four-month-old program, which allows participating Mexican trucking companies to send loads throughout the United States, comes despite language in a recently signed spending bill aimed at blocking it.

The Department of Transportation is taking advantage of a loophole in the new law, which prohibits the government from spending money to "establish" the program. The government says the new rules don't apply since the current program started in September.

Mexican trucks to keep rolling in U.S.

Administration's move angers foes in Congress

By David Washburn

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 27, 2007

The Bush administration will continue to operate a controversial, cross-border trucking program despite language in the $555 billion appropriations bill signed by President Bush yesterday aimed at eliminating the program's funding.

The administration's move, while not unexpected, sparked outrage from Democratic and Republican members of Congress who have fought to kill the three-month-old pilot program, which allows long-haul Mexican trucks to travel throughout the United States.

“The administration seems to believe that the law doesn't apply to them,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the author of the appropriations bill amendment that sought to cut funding for the program, said in a statement.

Dorgan and other opponents of the program say the amendment's language is unambiguous, and that the administration's action will be challenged in Congress and the courts.

Dorgan, more than 100 other members of Congress and several interest groups, such as the Teamsters union and independent truck drivers, contend that the program lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure that Mexican trucks meet the same standards as American trucks.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, has said the program demonstrates a “complete disregard” for the safety of U.S. motorists and the security threat posed by Mexican truckers.

Congress cuts funding for Mexican trucks

But opponents believe Bush will find other ways to keep program rolling

Posted: December 22, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Congress has passed a bill that cuts funding for the controversial Mexican truck program, but lawmakers expect the Bush administration to keep the foreign vehicles rolling on American roads amid safety and security concerns.

Joe Kasper, spokesman for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told WND that "without federal funding, it will be difficult to continue the program. However, we must expect that the administration will continue looking for ways to do so."

The newly passed 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibits the Department of Transportation from using the funds in it "to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

"In a Democratic-sponsored spending bill filled with rewards for special interests, this is actually one of the few beneficial provisions included in the bill," Kasper said.

He points out Bush is expected to sign the bill.

Mexican trucks roll on despite opposition

Congress unified on bill to halt Bush administration program

Posted: December 13, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Michael Howe

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The Bush administration continues to push forward with its controversial project allowing Mexican trucks to move freely on U.S. roads despite strong protests from both chambers of Congress, where legislation is pending.

"Congress has stated clearly that it believes going forward with such a program, without the information needed to assure safety on American roads, is not safe," said Barry Piatt, spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Dorgan successfully amended the Senate Transportation Appropriations Bill to include language to stop the Mexican Truck Demonstration Program, hoping the Bush administration would respond.

However, even though the House and Senate agreed to retain the language, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, is continuing with the program.

According to the conference report on the House bill, HR 3074, issued Nov. 13, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish a cross-border motor carrier demonstration program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones along the international border between the United States and Mexico."

The bill, however, awaits approval by both the full House and the full Senate.

Teamsters' Hoffa leads border rally protesting trucking program

By David Washburn

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 5, 2007

SAN DIEGO – Saying he was here to fight for the safety of America's roads, Teamsters union General President Jim Hoffa led a rally Wednesday morning at the Otay Mesa border crossing to protest a pilot program that allows long-haul trucking across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The big money boys want to have trucks coming through here that are dangerous,” Hoffa said over cheers from dozens of Teamsters and the roar from Mexican trucks leaving the U.S. inspection station on Enrico Fermi Drive.

“Wake up America, fight back,” Hoffa told supporters.

The pilot project, which has been up and running since September, allows up to 100 pre-approved Mexican carriers to send trucks throughout the United States – beyond the border zone – for a year to test the safety of cross-border trucking.

U.S. carriers also can travel in Mexico for the first time as a step toward opening the border to commercial traffic as required in the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Hundreds of safety violations documented for Mexican rigs

'Clear double standard' subs foreign limits for U.S. laws
Posted: December 5, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association say they have documented hundreds of safety violations by Mexican trucks rolling on U.S. roads under the Department of Transportation's Mexican truck demonstration project.

"The Department of Transportation is allowing Mexican long-haul rigs to operate in the United States without requiring U.S. rules and regulations to be enforced," Rick Craig, the director of regulatory affairs for the group, told WND in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is providing exemptions from U.S. safety rules that the FMCSA claim are covered in a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Mexico," Craig continued.

"It's a clear double standard," he said. "Mexican truck safety regulations are being accepted by the FMCSA as equivalent to U.S. rules, even though the FMCSA refuses to provide any real detail about how or why the decision was made."

The association has filed a lawsuit against the DOT and FMCSA in San Francisco, challenging that the Mexican trucks the government is allowing into the U.S. under the DOT demonstration project are unsafe when tested by U.S. safety rules and regulations.

Video: Ron Paul Answers Question About North American Union

November 29, 2007 @ 1:27 am

Presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul was asked by a YouTuber at last night’s debate on CNN if he thought the threat of a union between the United States, Mexico, and Canada was real. Paul said he did believe so and explained if true, what the merger would mean:

Leaders to discuss reducing border waits

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 11/29/2007 12:00:00 AM MST

Pedro Escobedo guided his detection dog around a truck at the inspection area in Juárez last month before the truck crossed into the United States. A two-day international conference on security and trade starts today in Juárez. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

The balance between free trade and border security has been a puzzle for the American government to solve, but Mexican stakeholders say they want to help.

Mexican trade leaders from several border states are to meet today and Friday in Juárez for a conference on the subject.

"This should be a priority. Look at the European Union, the first thing they did was ease commerce," said Oscar Kuri, general director of the Coalición Empresarial Pre Libre Comercio, one of the sponsors of the conference.

Kuri said he expected to 500 people at the event, including visitors from the Mexican states of Baja California, Coahuila and Sonora and from Texas, California and New Mexico. The conference, Congreso Internacional de Seguridad y Comercio, takes place at the Centro Cultural Paso del Norte in the ProNaF zone.