House OKs Energy Bill, Drilling in Arctic Refuge

Defying President Bush’s veto threat, the Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would require Mexican trucks to meet strict safety standards before gaining unfettered access to U.S. highways.

The bill was approved by voice vote over the objection of Bush and Republican allies who said the measure would violate the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement and frustrate the president’s own effort to expand trade with Mexico.

Republican opponents promised further delaying tactics to keep the bill from going to a conference committee with House negotiators. The House last month passed an even stricter measure that would ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads entirely because of safety concerns.

Bush allies hope that if they can delay action on a final measure, a compromise still could be crafted that is more acceptable to the administration and would avert what could be the first veto of Bush’s presidency.

But the defeats for Bush in both the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House were an embarrassment at a time when he is trying to build a stronger relationship with Mexico and its president, Vicente Fox, who is coming to Washington in September.

The votes also are a setback for Bush as he struggles to get Congress to strengthen his hand in negotiating trade agreements. A bill to give the president that expanded negotiating power was pulled from the House calendar earlier this week because GOP leaders lacked the votes to pass it.

The provisions to restrict or ban Mexican trucks in the United States were contained in an otherwise routine $60-billion bill to finance transportation programs for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The House-Senate conference that writes the bill’s final version is not expected to meet until Congress returns after a monthlong recess set to begin Friday.

Emerging as one of Bush’s key allies in the dispute over Mexican trucks is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the administration’s nemesis on other issues ranging from campaign finance reform to patients’ rights legislation. McCain expressed confidence Wednesday that if Bush ultimately vetoes the overall transportation bill because of the truck issue, there will be enough votes to sustain his action.

That remained uncertain, given the Senate’s voice-vote approval of the transportation bill--and with it the provision to restrict Mexican trucks. Democrats said Republicans requested the voice vote because a roll call would put many in the awkward position of choosing between their support for the popular overall bill and their loyalty to Bush on the truck issue.

It provided an abrupt ending to a debate that ensnared the chamber for more than a week and resurrected one of the most controversial issues surrounding implementation of NAFTA, which was adopted in 1994 to open trade relations with Canada and Mexico.

At the time, critics of NAFTA expressed concern about opening U.S. roads to Mexican trucks. And since then, they say that statistics have backed up their worries. Of 46,144 Mexican trucks inspected at the border in fiscal 2000, 36% were ordered off the road because of safety violations, compared with 24% of U.S. trucks, federal officials said.

Currently, Mexican trucks are confined to an area within about 20 miles of the border. But in February, a NAFTA arbitration board ruled that restriction violated U.S. obligations under the trade agreement.

The Bush administration has proposed letting Mexican freight haulers operate throughout the United States beginning in January; the plan includes beefed up border inspections. But critics say the proposal is too lenient.

Urged on by highway safety advocates as well as the Teamsters union, the House in June voted to prohibit U.S. officials from processing applications from Mexican trucking companies to travel throughout the U.S. unless stronger measures are taken to ensure their safe operations.

The bill approved by the Senate takes a more moderate approach: It would require Mexican trucks to undergo a series of safety checks before being allowed to drive beyond the border zone. Among other things, U.S. inspectors would check trucks and audit records at trucking companies in Mexico and verify driver’s licenses and insurance coverage at border crossings.

The administration argues that the additional checks are unnecessary and that implementing them could keep Mexican trucks off the road for two or more years.

That, in turn, would violate NAFTA and would expose the United States to more than $1 billion in sanctions, the administration warns.

But proponents of the Senate proposal, sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), said they were simply demanding that Mexican trucks meet the same standards as U.S. trucks--and that NAFTA did nothing to take away the power to impose such rules.

“With the provisions contained in our bill, when you’re driving on the highway behind a Mexican truck, you can feel safe,” Murray said. “We want their trucks to be able to share our roads. But we want them to be safe first.”

Critics said that many of the bill’s requirements, such as one that Mexican truck companies carry U.S. insurance, have nothing to do with safety but are intended simply to keep the trucks off the road. They cast the measure as a sop to the Teamsters union, which opposes giving Mexican trucks more U.S. highway access.

“Safety is little more than a straw dog in this fight,” McCain said. “What this is about is $140 billion in goods shipped to the United States from Mexico each year and the Teamsters union’s desire that its members keep control of that lucrative trade.”

However, McCain and his principal ally, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), lost crucial support from GOP allies last week when the Senate voted, 70 to 30, to end a filibuster of the truck proposal. Those voting to end the filibuster included 19 Republicans. One senior Republican aide attributed GOP defections to fear that a vote against truck safety could be used against lawmakers by political opponents.

“Everybody’s concerned about being accused the first time a Mexican truck hits a school bus,” the aide said. “That’s the specter that haunts this whole thing.”

RELATED STORY

Border checks: CHP pursues tough inspections of Mexican trucks. B1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

HIGHLIGHTS

Key provisions in the energy legislation being debated by the House:

Provides $33.5 billion in energy tax credits and incentives over 10 years, more than 70% to enhance energy production and the rest for conservation, energy efficiency and environmental protection.

Initial bill called for oil and gas development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Requires gasoline use among sport-utility vehicles, minivans and light trucks to be reduced by 5 billion gallons over six years.

Provides tax credits for buying solar panels, fuel-efficient hybrid gas-electric cars and ultra-energy efficient appliances and homes.

Gives tax breaks to extend operation of nuclear power plants.