Trent Lott: “I wish to be heard on this Dorgan amendment, the pending amendment, with regard to the Mexican trucker demonstration…”

“I wish to be heard on this Dorgan amendment, the pending amendment, with regard to the Mexican trucker demonstration project. I wish to speak on it because I was involved in it the last time this issue came up. I have always urged that we deal with this in a fair way and in a responsible way. We don't want unsafe trucks or unsafe drivers coming into our country, whether they are coming from Mexico or Canada. But I have always felt that maybe we had an attitude toward trucks coming in from Mexico; it was very different from those which might be coming from Canada. I think we need to have rules in place and we need to have proper precautions, but I think we also need to be rational and reasonable. If we don't have at least a demonstration project, what is going to happen when our trucks want to go to Mexico? I will guarantee you one thing: If I were the President of Mexico, I would say there are not going to be any American trucks coming down here. Can't we use some common sense? This is not some enemy satellite sitting on our border. This is a place where we can begin to make progress. I know it is easy to demagogue this issue and get into all kinds of flights of fancy about, oh, yes, this is the beginning of a superhighway coming from Mexico; that the border is just a bump in the road and this is part of the one nation movement in North America. I don't know where all this comes from. Maybe I am naive. I don't advocate that.”