[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15397-15398]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ENTERPRISE CARRIERS FROM MEXICO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, today, there are over 800 so-called 
enterprise carriers from Mexico operating heavy trucks long distance in 
the United States.
  Now, what is wrong with that?
  Well, Mexico doesn't have any drug or alcohol testing of its 
commercial drivers. Mexico does not have a centralized database of 
commercial driver's licenses and driving offenses, making it difficult, 
if not impossible, to attract and disqualify drivers who are unsafe and 
who would be disqualified here in the United States.
  In Mexico, truck drivers are pretty much exploited and abused. They 
don't even have hours of service rules. Some drivers will drive for 1 
or 2 days straight.
  In the United States, of course, we have very restrictive rules for 
safety on hours of service. Those laws, theoretically, apply to the 800 
Mexican enterprise carriers operating in the United States.
  However, how many hours did that person drive before they got to the 
border? Was it 24 or 48?
  Then they cross over the border and they are limited.
  Congress objected and voted multiple times by huge bipartisan 
majorities on legislation I supported to say: No, we do not want these 
Mexican trucks ranging about here in the United States until they can 
prove that they meet the same standards as our truck drivers.
  We have had a few offenses. We don't even put special scrutiny on 
these enterprise carriers. We have very few inspectors out there. But 
they have managed to rack up some pretty horrific records on a random 
basis that raise huge questions about their safety.

                              {time}  1030

  They had over 900 violations per driver that cannot read or speak the 
English language sufficiently to respond to official inquiries, a 
violation of the law; over 800 violations for brake-related issues--
worn brake hoses, defective brakes, et cetera; and hundreds of other 
violations for tire treads, exhaust leaks, and oil leaks. One company 
was fined $40,000.
  There is only one way to solve this issue, and that is to modify the 
NAFTA agreement. Remember, this was authorized. They were given 
national treatment; that is, Mexico is treated the same as the U.S. 
They won, in one of those secret tribunals, a huge judgment against the 
United States.
  The Obama administration caved in and allowed the door to be opened 
to these unsafe carriers operating in the United States. We can close 
that door again by just modifying NAFTA.
  The Trump administration is approaching this issue perhaps as early 
as next week in the NAFTA negotiations, and this should be at the top 
of their agenda: we will not give them national treatment; they will 
have to meet our standards and prove that they have met our standards; 
they have to develop a meaningful driver's license base; they will have 
to have drug and alcohol testing; they have to have hours of service. 
Then we can talk about whether or not they can operate in the United 
States.

[[Page 15398]]

  We had a system before NAFTA. Mexican truck drivers would bring the 
trucks just over the border. They were limited in how far they could 
go. They would drop the trailers. U.S. truck drivers would pick them 
up.
  Then there is one other issue here: Are we going to do to our 
trucking industry what we have done to so many in manufacturing? Are we 
going to drive down truck drivers' wages?
  It is already a tough business, particularly for independent drivers. 
Are we going to make them compete with people who are earning 2 bucks 
an hour and don't have to meet the same rules as they do? That is not 
fair competition, and it is not good for the American people, not for 
the jobs or the safety on our highways.
  So I am asking the Trump administration to hang tough on this issue 
and take away this national treatment that we are giving to Mexico, 
which does not have an equivalent system to the United States, and go 
to something that is based on reciprocity and equivalence. That would 
be a good change to the NAFTA agreement, which, of course, I opposed 
from day one.

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