The Protecting America’s Roads Act, which was tabled in the U.S. House of Representatives at the beginning of October by Texas Republican Beth Van Duyne would, according to her press release, “rid the country of illegal immigrant commercial truck drivers and ineligible foreign nationals.”
“It is time to end the danger posed by illegal immigrant and foreign national truck drivers who are not capable of safely operating an 18-wheel commercial vehicle or, in many cases, understanding English language warning signs and road instructions,” Van Duyne said in a news release.
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Among those falling under the bill’s definition of “ineligible foreign nationals” are apparently Canadian commercial drivers because it proposes to remove the licensing reciprocity agreement the United States has with foreign countries.
Currently the only countries to have such agreements with the U.S. are Canada and Mexico.
The bill goes on to require any non-resident holder of a state-issued commercial driver’s license to prove residency in that state.
It would seem that this would prevent Canadian drivers from entering the U.S. with a Canadian licence or obtaining a recognized U.S. licence, meaning only U.S. drivers could handle cross-border freight hauls with Canadian carriers effectively shut out.
This is how Section 3 of the proposed bill describes it: “Not later than six months after the date of enactment of this aAct, the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shall take such actions as are necessary to terminate any existing reciprocity agreements that recognize foreign commercial driver’s licenses in the United States or permit holders of foreign commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) to operate a commercial motor vehicle in the United States, unless expressly authorized by statute.”
Reciprocity for Canadian CDLs stems from a notice published in the FMCSA Register as of May 1989.
The U.S. government shutdown at the time of writing made it impossible to get further comment for this article.
In her online press release, Van Duyne said the bill is in response to an immigration crackdown and a high profile commercial motor vehicle collision that involved an immigrant driver.
That incident and another fatality crash have spurred a number of government actions in the U.S. aimed at immigrant drivers, including a rule that drivers must pass a roadside English proficiency exam by traffic officers or be placed out of service. In some cases, the truck can be impounded.
Van Duyne’s bill hasn’t yet passed, but if it did and reciprocity was terminated, the disruption to cross-border trade and Canadian commercial carriers would be enormous.
When contacted, a Canadian Trucking Alliance spokesperson said the bill hadn’t yet been brought to its attention and the organization would need time to study it before commenting.
