How do you like this good news Senate Votes To Put The Brakes On Mexican Trucks! No funding - No program!?

• The Senate just passed the Dorgan Amendment that would cut off funding for the Mexican truck pilot program implemented last week, under the cover of darkness by the Bush administration, in spite of the safety issues reported by the Inspector General. Senator Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) exchanged their views on the issue. Cornyn repeatedly said, “Let’s just give it a chance and see if there are any issues” and offered his own amendment to fund the pilot program. He also stated that “many of the lessons to be learned about the safety of these trucks will be learned on the ground” - sort of an OJT (on the job training) for inspectors but at what cost would it be to the American public? Senator Dorgan argued that “there is no treaty that would require this Senate to allow something on our highways that is unsafe”. He also argued that the Inspector General issued a report last week at 7:30 and at 8:30 the program was implemented. Information was not available to the Inspector General about inspection reports, accident reports, and driver violations except for those given to them by “the generosity of the Mexican trucking company”. The Inspector General raised many unresolved deficiencies but Republicans are saying, “let’s try this and see what happens” - as if the American people are guinea pigs in their huge globalist experiment. Dorgan argued that we have to think about the safety of the American public and asked, “Why the rush?” The Inspector General reported that the program agreed to check every-truck-every-time but there are no sites to carry out these inspections prior to initiating the program which means we would now have a greater risk that they would be able to bypass the required inspections. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) argued, “Unsafe trucks on our roads, unsafe food on our tables, unsafe pet food for our pets, unsafe toys for our children…all of these are problems with trade . . . if we don’t write safety into our trade deals, we put Americans at risk . . . instead of trade deals that benefit CEO’s we should make deals that benefit everyone else.” And knowing that common sense was not on his side, Senator Cornyn threw out . . . oh no he didn’t . . . “Public safety is number one . . . we agree on that and my amendment guarantees safety but this seems more about protectionism and fear of competition in the marketplace . . . fear of free trade . . . If this is about safety, fine. But if this is about the fear of competition and discriminating against Mexican trucks, I don’t think this is something the Senate should endorse. Oh yes he did! The Dorgan amendment passed: Yeas - 74 Nays - 24 The Cornyn amendment failed: Yeas - 29 Nays - 69 No funding - No program! Source: C-Span 2

• Answer:

  My hat is off to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)!!!! Can we put him on the Presidential ticket for 2008? Finally a politician who is looking out for our safety. 8:33 PM... I just fired off an email saying THANKS, you can also if you wish. Here's the addy: http://brown.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm 9:34 PM... Here is a link on how they voted in 2006. I know the vote hasn't been recorded yet, but by tomorrow it should be up. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00201 ***** 5:38 AM, here is the voting link as promised...look at how your Reps voted!!!! ******* http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00332