U.S. Legislative Issues
Congress Passes Five Year Infrastructure Bill
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act, legislation that reauthorizes federal surface transportation programs through Fiscal Year 2020 by $305 billion (about $61 billion annually). It is the first law enacted in over ten years that provides long-term funding for surface transportation infrastructure, including roads, bridges, transit systems and rail network. A summary of the FAST Act can be found here. Among some of the other notable provisions in the bill:
- Section 1413 of the new law directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to identify and establish fueling corridors to support alternative-fueling stations, including electric, hydrogen, propane and natural gas fueling infrastructure at strategic locations along major national highways. DOT is further charged with identifying the near- and long-term need for, and locations of, electric vehicle, natural gas, and propane refueling infrastructure for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
- Removes from public view major components of the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program that score carriers on safety, known as the Safety Management System (SMS). It requires the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to fix the program before making the scores public again. The agency has 18 months to come up with the changes.
- Allows for human hair testing in employment screening as an alternative to urine tests. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would have a year to establish federal standards for such a hair-testing provision that would need to be adopted by DOT.
New Highway Bill Provides $95 Million for User Fee Testing
For the first time, Congress has authorized a federal program to study alternative sources to the gas tax for surface transportation funding. The program, authorized under Section 6020 of the recently passed FAST Act, provides $95 million for the U.S. Department of Transportation to grant individual states or groups of states the funding to "test the design, acceptance, and implementation of two or more future user-based alternative revenue mechanisms." Objectives for the program include: conducting public outreach programs to raise awareness about the need for alternative revenue sources, ensuring personal privacy protections, and examining the use of private vendors to collect the fees.
The bill’s provision allows federal money to cover up to 50 percent of the cost of new pilot programs. Regarding funding, $15 million will be available in FY 2016 for grants, followed by $20 million for each of the remaining four years of the bill’s authorization.
NHTSA Issues NPRM on Improved Rear Impact Protection for Trailers and Semitrailers
On December 7, 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that focuses on upgrading the Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs) that address underride protection in light-vehicle crashes into the rear of trailers and semitrailers. This differs from the NPRM published earlier this year by NHTSA, as it focused on rear underride crash protection and visibility conspicuity of single unit trucks.
Most trailers and semitrailers are already required to have bars, known as rear impact guards, hanging down from the back of the trailer to prevent underride. To enhance underride protection, NHTSA proposes to require more robust rear impact guards on trailers and semitrailers, arguing that they will improve underride protection in higher speed crashes compared to current rear impact guards. NHTSA also estimates, on average, that the annual incremental material and fuel cost would be $13 million to ensure that all applicable future trailers and semitrailers in the U.S. fleet will be built to the more rigorous standards.
In excessive underride crashes, there is passenger compartment intrusion (PCI) as the passenger vehicle underrides so far that the rear end of the struck vehicle enters the passenger compartment of the striking passenger vehicle. The occupant crash protection features built into today’s passenger vehicles are able to provide high levels of occupant protection in 35 mph frontal crashes. This NPRM would require trailer and semitrailer guards to remain in place and prevent PCI in crashes of severities of up to 35 mph versus the current requirement of up to 30 mph.
Comments regarding this NPRM will be accepted for up to 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
FMCSA Issues Final Electronic Logging Devices Rule
On December 10, 2015, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released its final rule mandating the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) by commercial vehicles. Federal regulators argue that ELDs will help them enforce rules limiting the number of hours drivers can be on the road, restrictions aimed at preventing fatigue and accidents.
The rule, which takes effect in two years, outlines new specifications for ELDs that address: minimum performance and design standards for hours-of-service (HOS) ELDs; requirements for the mandatory use of these devices by drivers currently required to prepare HOS records of duty status (RODS); requirements concerning HOS supporting documents; and measures to address concerns about harassment resulting from the mandatory use of ELDs.
The American Trucking Association (ATA) praised the rule. "Safety is ATA's highest priority," said ATA Chairman Pat Thomas, Senior Vice President of State Government Affairs for UPS. "Today's announcement of an ELD mandate will make our industry even safer than it is today so we are grateful to FMCSA for advancing this important regulation."
