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Tonight's facts

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(CNN) -- Here are some facts from tonight's broadcast that you might find interesting.

War on the Middle Class: Strive Act

STRIVE Act: Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007

• Calls for an increase in border security and the number of border agents and technology to assist them.
• Creates a mandatory employer verification program.
• Creates a new H-2C visa, with a cap of 400,000 that offers a path to legalization to workers, and their families, expands the H-1B visa program cap from 65-thousand to 180-thousand and creates broader definitions for those exempt from the cap. Includes a massive expansion of the number of visas for agricultural workers and their families.
• Allows illegal aliens and children of illegal aliens to attend colleges at in-state tuition rates.

Source: Thomas HR 1645

Mexican Trucks

OOIDA urges Senate to take action against Mexican trucks.
Truckers concerned about safety, security of pilot program.

(Grain Valley, MO, Sept. 6, 2007) -- The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) stood alongside Representatives James Oberstar, Peter Defazio, Nancy Boyda and others in asking the Senate to take immediate action against the Cross-Border Trucking Pilot Program, set to begin today.

"It may be called a pilot program, but anyone who understands the full scope knows it's a pre-ordained plan to fully open our borders, all in the name of economics and cheap labor," said Todd Spencer, Executive Vice President of OOIDA.

White House defense of Mexican truck decision

Mexican Truck Program No Cause for Fear Says Former Bush Administration Truck Safety Attorney

Attempt to block federal program called "desperate"

DALLAS -- The former top lawyer from the federal agency responsible for trucking safety says there is no reason to fear a pilot program that will allow trucks from Mexico to gain greater access to highways in the United States.

Attorney Brigham McCown of Winstead PC in Dallas is the former general counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration who helped negotiate and design the new program while serving as a senior Bush Administration official at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

The FMCSA program will allow approximately 100 registered truck carriers from Mexico to travel beyond the current restricted U.S. border zone. The Teamsters Union has asked a federal appeals court to keep the program from going forward.

"The last-minute attempts to block the program are just the desperate efforts of a few people who want to protect their own turf," Mr. McCown says. "We've been over this for two decades. What they fail to tell you is that trucks from Mexico that were grandfathered before a moratorium in the 1980s travel down our roads -- without incident -- every day, and have done so for years."

"What these people are saying is that 10 million professional drivers and a half million U.S. companies will be overwhelmed by a few hundred trucks from Mexico. More important is the fact that for the first time ever, Mexico must open its markets to U.S. trucks. My money is on the American truckers," Mr. McCown concluded.

On January 23, 2007, Senator Byron Dorgan along with co-sponsoring Senators Lindsey Graham, Sherrod Brown, Bernie Sanders, Russell Feingold and Robert Byrd re-introduced the "Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act" which, when passed will prohibit the import, export or sale of sweatshop

On April 23, 2007, Representative Michael Michaud of Maine and Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey re-introduced the companion bill (H.R.1992) in the House.

Read House Bill H.R.1992, The Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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