Brown Votes to Halt Mexican Trucks at the Border

Statement

Brown Votes to Halt Mexican Trucks at the Border

Today, Congressman Henry E. Brown, Jr. (R-SC), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, applauded the House's decision to prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from continuing with a pilot program involving cross-border trucking with Mexico. H.R. 6630, a bill co-sponsored by Brown, would stop both Mexican trucks and contaminated food from entering the country. After today's action, Congressman Brown made the following statement:

"This necessary action to restrict the entry of Mexican trucks will safeguard American roads, jobs and the economy, while providing the means to prevent truckloads of contaminated goods from being shipped across our borders. The DOT's own Inspector General has raised doubts about the agency's ability to ensure that trucks coming from Mexico meet US safety standards and that their drivers comply with English proficiency requirements. Congress needs to examine the results of DOT's pilot program prior to further implementation and that is exactly what H.R. 6630 does."

On September 6, 2007, in an effort to comply with the original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the DOT began a cross-border demonstration project to allow a limited number of Mexican trucks to operate in the U.S. and a limited number of U.S. trucks to operate in Mexico. This project began as a one-year trial; however, the DOT has continually extended and continued the program, even after Congress enacted less-restrictive legislation to halt the program. Today's legislation, which has received a veto threat from the Administration, clearly states that before any cross-border trucking effort begins again, that effort must be specifically authorized by Congress and subject to stringent safety review requirements.

To learn more about Congressman Brown's work on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee or his views on Border Security please visit http://brown.house.gov/Issues/transportation.html and http://brown.house.gov/Issues/bordersecurity.html respectively.

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