Omnibus Bill Terminates Mexican Trucks

Congress passed a huge $409.6 billion omnibus appropriations bill March 10 with a final vote in the Senate of 62-35. Tucked into the measure that authorizes funds to run the federal government was the final note on the Department of Transportation’s much-debated, oft-extended pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to operate in the United States.

The 18-month long program, which was designed to satisfy requirements of the North American Free Trade Agreement, had met with fierce opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. Safety groups and the Teamsters union also complained that it would open U.S. roads to unsafe and unmonitored drivers.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa commended Congress for voting to ban Mexican trucks. "There is no doubt that Congress has once and for all killed the Bush administration's expensive and illegal pilot project to open the border to Mexican trucks," Hoffa said.