CONGRESS CUTS FUNDING FOR MEXICAN TRUCKS but Bush.
Tell Congress to stop the Bush administration from keeping the
program rolling.
Alert: 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., said 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.
"Congressman Hunter introduced the first bill in Congress to stop the
program from moving forward and never relented in his effort to
ensure the safety of our roadways and that American security would not be
threatened by an inundation of foreign motor carriers," Kasper said.
Ten Mexican carriers, with another 37 awaiting final approval, are
now operating under the program. Four American carrier are allowed to
drive on Mexican roads.
Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs for the American
Trucking Association said Congress "has clearly expressed its will on the
issue, and we are waiting to see what the Department of
Transportation's next step will be."
"There are four U.S. trucking companies with 41 trucks in the
cross-border program. If the demonstration program ends, there will be no
U.S. trucks crossing the border," Boyce explained.
Congress has expressed its will before, however, and the program has
continued.
Kasper said Hunter, a presidential candidate, "intends to work
against any effort by the administration, just as he did over the last
year, to ensure the brakes are put on this program once and for all."
The American Trucking Association hopes the Mexican project will be
successful.
"We have generally supported NAFTA and the cross-border trucking
program as an improvement in cross-border efficiency," said Boyce.
"We had expected that the demonstration program would prove whether
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can regulate and
ensure the safety of Mexican trucks and drivers traveling in the United
States," he said.
Opposition to the program comes not only from the U.S. Congress but
from the other side of the border as well. The Mexican National Truck
Drivers Federation plans to block the border between Mexico and the
U.S. in January if the program doesn't come to an end, according to
the Mexican newspaper El Financiero.
"It is irresponsible of the Mexican government, of (President) Felipe
Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people
in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the
Americans," Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers
Federation, told the paper.
If American trucks are able to continue operating in Mexico, the ATA
expects them to be protected.
"In any situation, we expect Mexico's authorities to protect U.S.
drivers and vehicles lawfully in that country," Boyce said.
Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, was contacted by phone and e-mail but declined comment.
DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
TAKE ACTION: Send YOUR blast FAX to ALL 535 Congressman NOW!
To visit FAXDC.com, click here: http://faxdc.com/
To Fax Blast Capitol Hill, click here: http://faxdc.com/trucks.htm
To place a Fax order, click here: http://faxdc.com/Order.htm
Thank You Patriot! Your friends at FAXDC.com
NOTE: Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know who supports
saving America and Protecting our Middle Class. Thank you!
###
program rolling.
Alert: 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., said 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.
"Congressman Hunter introduced the first bill in Congress to stop the
program from moving forward and never relented in his effort to
ensure the safety of our roadways and that American security would not be
threatened by an inundation of foreign motor carriers," Kasper said.
Ten Mexican carriers, with another 37 awaiting final approval, are
now operating under the program. Four American carrier are allowed to
drive on Mexican roads.
Clayton Boyce, vice president of public affairs for the American
Trucking Association said Congress "has clearly expressed its will on the
issue, and we are waiting to see what the Department of
Transportation's next step will be."
"There are four U.S. trucking companies with 41 trucks in the
cross-border program. If the demonstration program ends, there will be no
U.S. trucks crossing the border," Boyce explained.
Congress has expressed its will before, however, and the program has
continued.
Kasper said Hunter, a presidential candidate, "intends to work
against any effort by the administration, just as he did over the last
year, to ensure the brakes are put on this program once and for all."
The American Trucking Association hopes the Mexican project will be
successful.
"We have generally supported NAFTA and the cross-border trucking
program as an improvement in cross-border efficiency," said Boyce.
"We had expected that the demonstration program would prove whether
the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can regulate and
ensure the safety of Mexican trucks and drivers traveling in the United
States," he said.
Opposition to the program comes not only from the U.S. Congress but
from the other side of the border as well. The Mexican National Truck
Drivers Federation plans to block the border between Mexico and the
U.S. in January if the program doesn't come to an end, according to
the Mexican newspaper El Financiero.
"It is irresponsible of the Mexican government, of (President) Felipe
Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people
in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the
Americans," Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers
Federation, told the paper.
If American trucks are able to continue operating in Mexico, the ATA
expects them to be protected.
"In any situation, we expect Mexico's authorities to protect U.S.
drivers and vehicles lawfully in that country," Boyce said.
Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration, was contacted by phone and e-mail but declined comment.
DO NOT BE SILENCED BY ANYONE STAND UP! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
TAKE ACTION: Send YOUR blast FAX to ALL 535 Congressman NOW!
To visit FAXDC.com, click here: http://faxdc.com/
To Fax Blast Capitol Hill, click here: http://faxdc.com/trucks.htm
To place a Fax order, click here: http://faxdc.com/Order.htm
Thank You Patriot! Your friends at FAXDC.com
NOTE: Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know who supports
saving America and Protecting our Middle Class. Thank you!
###
0
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Our Elected officals are hell bent to sell us out to Mexico and Americans are a sleep. 0 -
come on lets show a little unity and see if were heard. 0 -
Ridiculous.
There have always been Mexican trucks AND drivers on both sides of our porous Southern border, and this legislation only makes it a point of record.
It will continue to be dangerous going into any third world country with American goods, just as it is dangerous in the US due to Mexican drivers' inattention and lack of vehicle safety awareness.
Freeways in Kalifornia will continue to have huge backups caused by unsecured loads of pallets, or cardboard stacked 15' above the vehicle, or appliances and bicycles roped about the perimeter of the Yugo, smoking and sputtering along in the fast lanes; Texas drivers will continue to be forced to slam on the brakes while herds of illegals run across lanes of freeway traffic, bent on escaping their own country.
Arizona and new Mexico drivers will contend with high-speed blockade runners; moving drugs and people in waves across the interstates, down rural roads, and even across 3 missile and bombing ranges in their zeal to break through the border.
Seems a big flap over a stale situation that won't be getting better any time soon, 'specially if the Dims get in this year.0 -
Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway
by Jerome R. Corsi
Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.
Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation's most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new "SENTRI" system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.
As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming "North American Union" that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.
Just examine the following websites to get a feel for the magnitude of NAFTA Super Highway planning that has been going on without any new congressional legislation directly authorizing the construction of the planned international corridor through the center of the country.
NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., is a "non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world's first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America." Where does that sentence say anything about the USA? Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.0
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