WASHINGTON — Trucking and law enforcement groups said a recent report claiming the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has failed to ensure trucking safety was unproductive and poorly researched.

The House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it easier for labor unions to organize employees, but President Bush said he would veto the measure if it passed the Senate.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), author of the rules Congress set for opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks, told Transportation Secretary Mary Peters she suspected the agency may be stacking the deck in its recently announced pilot program.

A coalition of trucking safety groups issued a report this week giving poor grades to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for failing to do enough to reduce large truck-related fatalities.

WASHINGTON — After more than a decade in the minority — and the past six years relegated to near-obscurity behind a powerful Republican majority and a Republican White House — Democrats swept into power in November, capturing both houses of Congress.

OTAY MESA, Calif. — U.S. Department of Transportation officials said they would be interested in a potential study of larger or heavier trucks, suggested recently by the chairman of the House transportation committee.

EL PASO, Texas — The Transportation Department’s pilot project allowing a limited number of Mexican carriers to access U.S. highways would not diminish security at the border, Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of Homeland Security, said at a Feb. 23 press conference.

WASHINGTON — Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), a key transportation legislator and a longtime opponent of increasing truck sizes and weights, told Transport Topics he would now support a pilot study of larger vehicles on U.S. highways.

EL PASO, Texas — The United States will grant Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways under a pilot program, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced here today.