WASHINGTON — Senators and the Bush administration clashed Tuesday about the legality of a pilot program allowing Mexican trucks to travel anywhere in the U.S., a day after the Transportation Department's inspector general released a report on the program that raised some concerns.
During an oversight hearing by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said the department had gone ahead with the program even though Congress cut its funding in December.
Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters "has found lawyers who are willing to tell her that some technical loophole in the language allows the pilot program to proceed," he said.
The program allows participating Mexican trucks to travel anywhere in the United States. Until it began, the trucks were limited to an area about 25 miles north of the border, and any cargo headed outside that zone had to be transferred to U.S. trucks.
Giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. roads was part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Under NAFTA, U.S. states just north of the border were to be opened to Mexican trucks in 1995 and the rest of the country in 2000.
In 2001, a NAFTA dispute resolution panel found that by refusing all Mexican trucks, the United States was violating the agreement's provisions.
But opposition by labor unions and safety groups delayed implementation of that part of NAFTA. In addition to what they have described as the trucks' lower safety standards and higher exhaust emissions, critics have cited Mexican drivers' lack of proficiency in English and suspected drug use among some of them as reasons to keep the trucks off U.S. roads.
The pilot program, with 18 Mexican companies participating, began in September. On Monday, the Department of Transportation's inspector general released a report on its first six months, showing that despite the fears about unsafe Mexican trucks on roads across the country, only 6.7% had destinations outside the border zone.
Of those 247 trips outside that zone, 89% were to destinations in California. Eight of the companies are based in Baja California.
During Tuesday's hearing, Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III told the panel that despite plans to inspect every participating truck each time it crosses the border, methods to check driver's licenses and inspection decals were not yet in place. "We don't know that every truck has been inspected every time," he said.
