In The News
House passes bill with section on restart provision
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives by a narrow margin has passed and sent to the Senate the controversial FY2016 Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill that President Barack Obama said he would veto if it reached his desk without major changes, including three involving the trucking industry.
The vote, completed at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday, was 216-210, with 213 Republicans and three Democrats voting for the bill and 31 GOP lawmakers and 179 Democrats voting against the bill. There were seven no votes.
While Obama cited numerous sections of the bill he opposed, there were three sections directly tied to the trucking industry.
One section would prohibit the use of federal funds to reinstate the July 1, 2013, restart rule unless the Secretary of Transportation and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation reviewed the results of the current restart study and are satisfied that the study establishes that commercial motor vehicle drivers who operated under the restart provisions in effect between July 1, 2013, and the day before the date of enactment of such Public Law demonstrated statistically significant improvement in all outcomes related to safety, operator fatigue, driver health and longevity, and work schedules, in comparison to commercial motor vehicle drivers who operated under the restart provisions in effect on June 30, 2013.
The other two sections allow for 33-foot combination vehicles as opposed to the current 28-foot limit, and prohibits the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from using federal funds to issue a rulemaking on increasing liability insurance minimums.
The American Trucking Associations applauded the House action.
"By including language requiring a more robust study of the Hours of Service restart restrictions originally imposed in July 2013, and a modest increase in the length of some truck combinations, the House has taken an important step in improving the safety of our highways, first and foremost, but also the efficiency of our highway system and the industry that moves nearly 70 percent of the nation's goods," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.
Graves said the longer combination vehicles allowed by the bill would improve capacity and safety, without increasing truck weight limits. This modest change will reduce the number of truck trips needed to move the nation's freight, cut emissions and reduce trucking's exposure to crashes.
The ATA has taken a neutral position on the possible increase in liability minimums.
"The House has shown tremendous leadership in passing this bill and putting forward these important provisions," Graves said, "and we now call upon the Senate to quickly pass a bill that follows that lead. Despite the ongoing misinformation campaign by critics of businesses in general and trucking in particular, these two provisions will make our highways safer and ensure our country's economy is served by an efficient supply chain."
As for the section preventing a rulemaking on increasing liability insurance minimums, "ATA was neutral on the insurance limits amendment, but broadly speaking we believe decisions about the limits should be based on sound data and to date we've seen no compelling research that would indicate a change in the limits is needed," said Sean McNally, vice president of communications and press secretary at ATA.
"The administration strongly objects to language ... that would undercut public safety, including letting the trucking industry avoid truck size and weight limits and by preventing data-driven changes that would improve safety for all travelers by addressing truck driver fatigue," the White House said in announcing Obama's objections. "In particular, section 132 (which would prohibit funds being used to enforce the so-called July 1 restart rule until the aforementioned determination by DOT officials) would undermine the administration's existing regulatory work to ensure appropriate standards for commercial truck drivers' rest. ...This provision combined with the troubling changes to truck size and weight limits could significantly compromise safety on our nation's roads," said in announcing his objection to the bill.
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