Mexican Standoff in Congress Continues
Posted on March 12, 2008
Filed Under GENERAL, IN THE NEWS
At a hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 11, Senator Byron Dorgan (D – ND) continued to fight the Department of Transportation on their plan to allow Mexican trucks full access to the U.S.
If you haven’t been following this story, here it is in a nutshell. Back in the 1990’s when NAFTA was passed, the U.S. was supposed to allow Mexican trucks full access to the U.S. Canadian trucks have had full access for many years. However, this has been held up for over 10 years, as Congress and DOT debated back and forth over how safe the Mexicans were, among other economic concerns. Finally, the Bush Administration has allowed the entry of the Mexican trucks. Congress protested. Congress passed a bill which prohibited DOT from spending any money on “the establishment of” a cross-border Mexican truck program. DOT looked at the authorization law, and said, “hey, man, the program’s already established, we’re just continuing it”, and went on spending the money.
I am not going to discuss the merit of the Mexican program. It has good points and bad. My main concern is it may allow an unlimited supply of cheap truck driving labor into the U.S., which I presently think is a bad thing. Maybe some trucking executive who is hurting for drivers could convince me otherwise.
My point is this: it is a ridiculous argument DOT is making. This smacks of Bill Clintonism, what’s the meaning of the word “is” nonsense. DOT is pretty good at writing rule after rule after rule, and then hammering anyone who has a DOT number if they miss a handful of drug tests, or fail to file an MCS-150 update form. If the law applies to them, though, they ignore it. Law for THEE, but not for ME. DOT’s job in enforcing the safety regulations would be easier if they didn’t give up the moral high ground so easily.
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