Keep on truckin’?

Keep on truckin’?

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: To hear Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., tell it, Congress is in a tizzy because the Bush administration has not halted the pilot program that allows some Mexican trucking companies to send their big rigs deep into the United States. Many of those trucks, of course, follow interstate highways.

Dorgan has sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, calling the program under which 11 Mexican companies have been given permits to drive 56 trucks beyond the border “both arrogant and wrong!”

His outrage comes because Congress passed, and President Bush has signed, a transportation funding bill that rules out spending money to “establish” such a program. The administration counters that the current program, which could allow for as many as 500 trucks from 100 Mexican companies into the United States, was established in September, long before Congress acted. The administration promises not to establish any new programs, but it plans to continue this one.

Source of problem

Of course, the real reason Dorgan and others in Congress are upset is that the union that represents U.S. truckers is upset. Teamsters see the Mexican trucks as a threat to their livelihood.

It’s not like this is a new fight. It’s been dragging on in one way or another since the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement called for cross-border freight hauling. For all these years, the Teamsters have been able to delay implementation of this part of NAFTA.

The primary argument is that the Mexican trucks might not be safe, but the pilot program also has included assigning more than 500 inspectors to enforce safety, vehicle and driver standards.

Finally, it must be assumed that members of Congress chose the wording of the transportation funding bill carefully.

The Teamsters are fighting the program in court. That’s a good place to resolve this issue.