Duncan Faircloth: “I rise to introduce the Safe Highways Act. This bill authorizes $20 million per year over the next five years for…”

“I rise to introduce the Safe Highways Act. This bill authorizes $20 million per year over the next five years for enforcement activities to prevent unsafe foreign trucks from rolling across our borders under NAFTA. This bill will fund inspections at our borders to keep these Mexican and Canadian trucks off our roads unless they meet our tough truck safety standards. Our standards are higher than in Mexico and Canada, and, certainly, I do not want these trucks rumbling down our roads and threatening the safety of our families. Mexican trucks are already permitted to operate in limited areas in the United States and, in fact, they have been doing so for two decades. We can enforce these standards at the border, but it will take training and an increased effort to handle the additional traffic from NAFTA, so we need to step up and put this money aside. These foreign trucks will soon roam more of our roads under NAFTA. We need to be ready. This is literally a matter of life and death for American families who share the road with these trucks.”