[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 103 (Monday, July 23, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S8055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SAFE TRUCKS ON AMERICAN HIGHWAYS

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I commend Senator Murray and Senator 
Shelby for drafting an amendment that is attempting to address the 
issue of safe trucks on American highways. This is an issue that has 
caused a lot of disagreement. I know it is a very controversial issue. 
I want to speak about it because my State is most certainly affected. 
But I think every State is affected by whether we have safe trucks on 
our highways.
  We do not yet have an agreement on this issue that everyone can live 
with, but I think we are a lot closer than anyone thinks. I ask 
Senators Murray, Shelby, McCain, Gramm, and the administration to work 
together to try to make sure we come out with regulations that will 
assure that we have the facilities and manpower to inspect every truck 
coming into our country, whether it is from Mexico or from Canada.
  Second, we must make sure we have foreign-owned trucks and drivers 
meet U.S. safety standards, while ensuring fair treatment for our 
trading partners. That is our responsibility and our commitment under 
NAFTA.
  Third, I think it is very important that we commit to providing the 
financial resources for the inspection stations and other border 
infrastructure. The administration asked for about $88 million for this 
purpose. The Murray-Shelby committee report that is on the floor has 
more than $100 million to make sure we have the border inspection 
stations, without which we couldn't possibly comply with NAFTA.
  If we have good regulations and the money to conduct the inspections, 
I think we can come up with language that will be acceptable to 
everyone and keep our commitment under NAFTA.
  I voted for NAFTA. I support free trade. But there are provisions in 
the underlying bill that I think could keep the United States from 
keeping its commitment under NAFTA.
  I also believe the Department of Transportation regulations are not 
quite strong enough to assure that we will have inspections of every 
truck. I don't think we have been able to fix this yet. I hope we will 
be able to work together on language that will assure that we will have 
real inspections, that will ensure safety on our highways, and comply 
with our commitments under NAFTA. I don't think we are there yet, but I 
think we are working on it.
  I ask everyone to come to the table. Senator Stevens has been a 
leader on this issue. Senator McCain, chairman of the Commerce 
Committee, certainly is a leader on this issue. Senator Shelby and 
Senator Murray as the chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations 
Transportation Subcommittee are leaders on this issue.
  I am a member of the Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee as 
well as the Commerce Committee. But mostly I am a person who is going 
to be on highways where there is going to be a lot of NAFTA traffic. 
When we are looking at 8,500 Mexican commercial trucking companies 
having the authority to operate in commercial zones today, I think we 
are talking about a lot of Mexican traffic on our freeways. We want a 
lot of Mexican and Canadian commerce, as long as the trucks meet our 
standards. We have to assure that those inspection stations are there 
to make sure it happens.
  In 1999, both United States and Mexican commercial motor vehicles 
made an estimated 4.5 million crossings on the border. Seventy percent 
of those were in Texas.
  This debate is not merely hypothetical to Texas, nor to the other 
border States. The added burden of overweight and potentially unsafe 
trucks is a daily reality in south Texas.
  The reason for low inspection statistics is the lack of adequate 
space to conduct safety inspections. Currently, the only permanent 
inspection facilities at the United States-Mexico border are at the 
State facilities in Calexico and Otay Mesa, CA. At the other 25 border 
crossings, Federal and State inspectors have limited access to the 
existing U.S. Customs lots.
  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration inspectors do not have 
the equipment nor the space they need to do the job. Those inspectors 
have space to inspect only one or two trucks at a time. The 
construction of dedicated motor carrier safety inspection facilities at 
or near the existing Federal border crossing would improve inspection 
statistics.
  Working with the Department of Public Safety in Texas, we have 
identified funding needs of $100 million to construct safety inspection 
stations. So it is very important that all of us focus on this issue 
and that we all look for a resolution of this issue.
  I think we are very close, but we are not there yet. I hope everyone 
will come together either to fashion an answer right now in this bill 
before it goes out of this Chamber or agree that we will not do that 
now, that we will write something in conference, but most certainly we 
would not stand on the language that is in the underlying bill nor the 
language that is in the House underlying bill that was passed that 
would prohibit Mexican trucks from coming into the United States at 
all.
  I think we can come up with language that will be acceptable to the 
administration and acceptable to our Mexican counterparts. But the 
bottom line is, we are not going to have unsafe trucks on our highways 
as long as I have a voice in the Senate, because we have standards. The 
whole concept of NAFTA was that we would have parity, parity of our 
truck standards with the truck standards of Canada and Mexico. That 
means there would be a level playing field in trucking company 
competition, so that there would not be an unfair advantage to another 
country and, secondly, so that there would be safety on all of our 
highways, to make sure we are not in any way discriminating against any 
country nor are we lowering the standards that we have in our country.
  So I intend to be very active in this debate. I intend to be very 
active in bringing the groups together to try to come to that 
compromise. My bottom line is only one; and that is that there is 
parity, safety, and a level playing field for the truckers of our 
country and the countries in NAFTA with whom we trade.

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