Congressional Concern May Slow Mexico Pilot Project

      Congressional resistance may slow down the Bush administration's plan to permit Mexican trucking companies to provide long-distance service into the United States.
      The Department of Transportation intends to start admitting a chosen group of up to 100 Mexican trucking companies in a one-year pilot project. The pilot also will allow U.S. carriers to send trucks into Mexico – but not until Mexico can come up with application protocols for U.S. carriers.
      The plan is billed as a test of DOT's system for ensuring that Mexican carriers operate safely in the U.S., but opponents in Congress have seized on the unequal timing between Mexican and U.S. access as a way to slow things down.
      Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced legislation that withholds funding for the pilot unless access for U.S. trucks to Mexico is simultaneous with access of Mexican trucks into the U.S., and until DOT puts the pilot project up for public comment.
      Similar legislation was introduced in the House by Reps. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., James Oberstar, D-Minn., and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
      While the outcome of these moves is not certain, it is clear that powerful voices in Congress are concerned about the DOT pilot project.
      John Hill, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said early in April that he does not yet have an answer about commencement of the pilot project.

Washington Report continued