In The News
President Obama objects to portions of THUD funding bill including 34-hour restart ban
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Tuesday said if the bill appropriating funds for the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) and related agencies is sent to him in its present form, he will veto it.
"The administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 2577," the White House said. "The bill freezes or cuts critical investment in transportation that creates jobs, helps to grow the economy, and improves America's roads, bridges, transit infrastructure, and aviation systems, benefiting towns and cities across the United States, as well as investments in ending homelessness, strengthening communities, and providing rental housing assistance for poor and vulnerable families."
Among the lengthy list of administration objections to the bill were sections on highway and motor carrier safety.
Specifically, the White House was referring to sections of the bill that would allow longer combination trucks (up to twin 33s) and would prohibit the administration from using federal dollars to enforce the 34-hour restart rule that was implemented July 1, 2013, but suspended by Congress late last year.
The American Trucking Associations Tuesday reiterated its support of the two provisions in the bill.
"ATA continues to urge the Congress to enact pro-safety, pro-trucking policies," said Sean McNally, ATA vice president of communications and press secretary. "We applaud the House Appropriations Committee for including these important items — specifically the provisions regarding Hours of Service and twin 33s enjoy bipartisan support — and hope the full House and Senate will follow their lead in passing them. The broader conflict between Congress and the White House is about funding levels."
"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 particular, section 132 (which would prohibit funds being used to enforce the so-called July 1 restart rule) 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."
Meanwhile, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, while not directly addressing the two issues raised by Obama, said it had concerns of its own with respect to striking a section of the bill that would block any Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration effort to increase liability insurance for motor carriers.
"OOIDA, along with a broad coalition of organizations and businesses covering the full spectrum of transportation providers and customers of property and passenger motor carriers, strongly supports a provision in the House Transportation Appropriations bill that would block the FMCSA's on-going effort to increase motor carrier financial responsibility requirements," OOIDA spokesperson Norita Taylor, said. "The FMCSA is considering increasing these requirements by as much as 500 percent despite the fact that the agency's own data shows that current requirements fully cover the damages in 99 percent of all at-fault, truck-involved crashes. We urge truckers and motor carriers to contact their lawmakers and urge their opposition to any effort to strike this provision from the underlying bill and to support the bill on final passage. The FMCSA's action is a solution in search of a problem and enactment of this provision is critical to halting it."
Safety advocates applauded Obama's stance.
"We are pleased that the Administration has conveyed their strong opposition to H.R. 2577 and identified the numerous anti-truck safety riders on the list of objectionable provisions. Truck crash deaths and injuries are increasing significantly and at the same time several members of Congress are rolling back lifesaving truck safety laws and regulations which will make our roads more dangerous and deadly for everyone.
"It is ironic that the House Appropriations leaders included a provision adding even more unnecessary requirements to the DOT study of the truck driver Hours of Service rule but, on the other hand, are comfortable with endangering public safety and overturning state laws by forcing double 33s on all local roads and highways based on a single study contracted and paid for by FedEx. These special interest attacks on safety are nothing more than the ugly return of congressional 'earmarks' but only for corporate lobbyists and their clients."
In its lengthy explanation of portions of the bill with which it did not agree, the administration said it "strongly" opposes the fact the bill contains reductions in funding for surface transportation programs, which would essentially preclude new investments while freezing or reducing most major capital accounts below prior-year funding.
The White House maintains that Obama's FY 2016 Budget request is a "fully-paid-for" plan for six years of increased investment in America's infrastructure, failing to add that after those six years the same funding problems remain.
"The $478 billion multimodal proposal includes essential program improvements that would improve safety, support critical infrastructure projects, and create jobs while improving America's roads, bridges, transit systems and railways in cities, fast-growing metropolitan areas, small towns and rural communities across the United States," the White House said. "The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to enact the GROW AMERICA proposal."
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].