firemarypeters

By Jim Hoffa
This post originally ran in The Arizona Republic

Mary Peters is still the U.S. Secretary of Transportation although she has broken a law preventing our roads from being overrun by unsafe trucks from Mexico.

Peters has defied Congress, which passed a law last year saying no money can be spent to establish a “pilot project” to give trucks from Mexico total access to our highways. Peters started the pilot project in September and has refused to stop the program.

Her unwillingness to follow the law is endangering our highway safety and weakening our national security. And if Peters, former director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, makes good on her past intentions to run for governor of Arizona, the state’s border will become even more porous than it has been in the past.

Peters’ record after 16 months of leading the Transportation Department is shameful.

It’s time for her to go.

This week, the Teamsters Union launched a Web site, www.FireMaryPeters.com, to expose the many reasons the secretary should be told to hit the road and to build support for ousting this lawbreaker.

Congress recognized a decade ago that Mexican trucking safety standards are far below those in the U.S. The Mexican government and businesses have since failed to raise safety standards.

As a result, problems have persisted: Mexico-based drivers can be forced to remain on the road for many, many hours, although fatigue is a major cause of highway accidents; the safety-inspection system is rickety; and there are loopholes for drug- and alcohol-testing wide enough to drive a truck through.

In addition, there are security lapses and long wait times at the U.S.-Mexican border as a result of staff shortages, poor training of border personnel, outdated facilities, an overwhelming workload and a lack of standard tamperproof documents. There is no way to adequately check the background of drivers entering our country.

Without establishing adequate safety procedures, Peters and the Bush administration allowed the first Mexican trucks to roll into the U.S. during the first weekend in September. The following Monday, 34 people were killed and 150 injured in a crash in northern Mexico involving a dynamite-laded truck. While this truck was not part of the cross-border program, the awful loss of life illustrates the safety problems that the Mexican government has not reined in. The following day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to shut down the cross-border trucking pilot program.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said that the purpose of the bill he sponsored was “to stop the Bush administration’s pilot program that now allows Mexican trucks to haul freight throughout the United States.” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the bill would “prevent the pilot (program) from going forward.” The Senate passed the bill with bipartisan support and a 75-23 margin.

Secretary Peters needs to understand that when our elected representatives pass laws, they apply to her as much as they do to you, me and everyone else. It’s time we hit the brakes on Secretary Peters’ bureaucratic mismanagement.

The Teamsters do not intend to let Peters get away with breaking the law. On Tuesday, their lawyers will be in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to prove that the pilot program is illegal and that it must be stopped immediately. And the Teamsters intend to see that Peters is fired for breaking the law.