U.S. Legislative Issues

The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent a proposed rule mandating backup cameras on all new light vehicles (cars and light trucks) to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final approval. The rule, first laid out in 2007, is intended to prevent deaths and injuries resulting from being backed over.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) co-sponsored the law mandating the rule in 2008. At the time, Congress gave DOT a February 2011 deadline, but it’s been delayed several times. The final rule is expected to be published in January of 2015.


A proposed rule by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) intended to prevent truck drivers from being coerced into violating safety regulations by their employers has been sent to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget for review before being published in the Federal Register. The rule, which was included in the most recent transportation law passed by congress, known as MAP-21, is intended to ensure safe and accountable workplaces for drivers.

The proposed rule is scheduled to be issued in late April, according to the FMCSA.


The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is preparing to publish a rule that would require interstate commercial drivers to have paper copies of their medical examiner’s certifications with them when operating a commercial motor vehicle at least through January 30, 2015. This requirement applies to any drivers with either a commercial driver’s license (CDL) or the commercial learner’s permit (CLP) who must be medically certified under 49 CFR part 391.

For more information, you can visit the FMCSA’s website here: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/rulemakings/rule-programs/rule_making_details.aspx?ruleid=468


On January 14, the House Transportation Committee, chaired by Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, convened to discuss the next transportation funding bill. The bill, which will fund infrastructure for the nation’s roads and bridges as well as mass transit systems, will replace the current transportation bill when it expires in September.

 

Chairman Shuster is intending to have the bill passed out of the House before the annual August recess, to allow time for negotiations between the House and the Senate on the final bill. The hearing, the first of many to come on the subject, tended to avoid specific policy issues, and focus on broad transportation principles.

 

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, a Democrat, and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, both testified about the need for steady and sustainable funding for the nation’s infrastructure. Most of the money for roads comes from taxes on gasoline and diesel, but the tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1993, has fallen victim to inflation and has not kept pace with the rising cost of labor and construction materials.