(The TTD issued the following news release on September 22.)
WASHINGTON — Calling today’s bipartisan vote in the U.S. House of Representatives a “sharp rebuke” to the White House for pushing cross-border transportation policies that leave American highway users at risk, Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), today condemned the Bush administration for its, “sop to special interests seeking to evade our highway safety laws.”
The comments came in response to today’s House vote (339-70) to block the unsafe and ill-advised plan of the Bush Administration to delay applying U.S. safety standards to truck and bus operators entering the U.S. from Mexico and Canada.
On several occasions Congress has ordered the Bush Administration to enforce the requirement under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that foreign trucks and buses traveling on our highways meet the same safety requirements as U.S. motor carrier operators. But in a gift to foreign business interests, the Bush administration proposed, under the radar, a two-year “grace period” for foreign trucks and buses to meet vehicle safety standards.
“This attempt by the Administration to skirt its transportation safety responsibilities should come as no surprise,” Wytkind said. “For years Congress has repeatedly had to stop George W. Bush from giving foreign companies a pass in complying with stringent truck and bus safety standards when they share the road with the American people.”
“Today’s bipartisan vote sends a clear message to the White House: there can be no grace period for safety,” Wytkind said, “and we shouldn’t bend the rules simply to please foreign business lobbyists.”
“Truck and bus drivers – and all who use our roads – owe a debt of gratitude to Rep. John Olver (D-MA) for leading this tremendous effort for highway safety,” he added.
TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org