The Teamsters Union has
filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's illegal pilot program
authorizing unsafe Mexican trucks to operate freely in the United States.
The lawsuit against the Transportation Department's Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration was filed Monday in federal court in
California. The Teamsters Union is suing because the Bush administration
violated federal law by failing to publish proper, advance notice of the
pilot project and by not allowing an opportunity for public comment before
the program takes effect.
"The Bush administration is ignoring the American people in its zeal to
open our borders to unsafe Mexican trucks," said Teamsters General
President Jim Hoffa. "This reckless pilot program must be stopped and the
driving public protected."
Joining the Teamsters in the suit are Public Citizen, the Sierra Club,
the Environmental Law Foundation and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers
Association.
Congress is moving to shut down the pilot program, but legislation may
not be enacted quickly enough with the unsafe long-haul Mexican trucks
prepared to start crossing into the United States within days. Under a 2001
NAFTA order, the Bush administration is authorizing up to 100 Mexico-based
trucking companies to operate beyond the narrow border zone.
Congress is considering a provision in an emergency spending bill that
would block funding for the program until Mexican trucking companies meet
congressionally mandated safety and security standards -- which they have
been unable to do for years. It also would require that U.S. trucks have
equal access to Mexican roads and mandate that the project comply with
federal law governing pilot programs. A bill by Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan.,
would enact similar requirements.
"The Bush administration is trying to circumvent safety requirements by
repackaging this plan as an illegal pilot program," Hoffa said. "Inspectors
can't enforce truck safety in the United States, let alone south of the
border."
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the
nation's largest transportation union, representing 1.4 million hardworking
women and men throughout the United States and Canada.