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Senate panel to consider FY2016 THUD appropriation bill Tuesday
WASHINGTON — The FY2016 Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill faces its first test in the Senate Tuesday in the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
The subcommittee is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. EDT to mark up the bill, passed in the House earlier this month as HR 2577.
Markup is the process by which a Congressional committee, amends, and rewrites proposed legislation.
The bill to be marked up contains several sections related directly to the trucking industry:
- An amendment that would prohibit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from issuing a rulemaking that would raise the minimum liability insurance motor carriers must carry.
- An amendment that would prevent the development of roadside electronic truck inspections.
- An amendment involving the 34-hour restart study that would require the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Transportation to and the Secretary of Transportation to determine if the study met the statutory requirements set for by Congress, and determine 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 the new provision 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
- An amendment to allow twin 33-foot trailers on all U.S. highways.
Rep. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who authored the legislation suspending the July 1, 2013, restart provision, will preside over the markup.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].