U.S. Legislative Issues

Commuting Benefits

The Internal Revenue Service has updated the Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit in Rev. Notice 2013-15. For taxable years beginning in 2013, the monthly limitation regarding the aggregate fringe benefit exclusion amount for transportation in a commuter highway vehicle and any transit pass is $245. The monthly limitation regarding the fringe benefit exclusion amount for qualified parking is $245.

U.S. DOT Proposes Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing that hybrid and electric vehicles meet minimum sound standards in order to help make all pedestrians more aware of the approaching vehicles.

The proposed standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, would fulfill Congress' mandate in the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act that hybrid and electric vehicles meet minimum sound requirements so that pedestrians are able to detect the presence, direction and location of these vehicles when they are operating at low speeds.

"Our proposal would allow manufacturers the flexibility to design different sounds for different makes and models while still providing an opportunity for pedestrians, bicyclists and the visually impaired to detect and recognize a vehicle and make a decision about whether it is safe to cross the street," said NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.

The sounds would need to be detectable under a wide range of street noises and other ambient background sounds when the vehicle is traveling under eighteen miles per hour. At eighteen miles per hour and above, vehicles make sufficient noise to allow pedestrians and bicyclists to detect them without added sound. Each automaker would have a significant range of choices about the sounds it chooses for its vehicles, but the characteristics of those sounds would need to meet certain minimum requirements. In addition, each vehicle of the same make and model would need to emit the same sound or set of sounds.

EPA Administrator to Leave

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson will step down after the President's January State of the Union speech. During her tenure at EPA, the agency developed the first greenhouse-gas standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. "I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference," Jackson said in a December 27 statement.

Government Report Recommends VMT Pilot Programs

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommends that Congress implement a pilot program of mileage based user fees. The report is in response to increased congressional interest in replacing the federal fuel excise tax with a vehicles-miles-traveled tax.

In the report, GAO said that while federal funding to build and maintain the highways and bridges comes primarily from highway users through federal fuel taxes, these revenues have eroded due to improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency and other factors contributing to shortfalls in the Highway Trust Fund. "Experts have proposed alternative means of raising revenues by charging drivers fees based on their miles traveled, GAO said. Should Congress further explore mileage fees, GAO recommended that Congress consider establishing a pilot program to test the viability of such fees for commercial trucks and electric vehicles. Further, the Federal Highway Administration should update its estimates of road damages imposed by all vehicle types compared with the tax revenues generated by each.

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