House Member Introduces Compliance Safety Accountability Reform Legislation

Congressman Lou Barletta (PA-11), introduced the Safer Trucks and Buses Act (H.R. 5532), which halts the publication of flawed safety scores for carriers in the Compliance Safety Accountability (CSA) program and directs the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to revamp its scoring system. Barletta’s legislation addresses problems with CSA that have been highlighted by multiple independent government sources and the RMC industry. 

The legislation requires FMCSA to stop publishing safety scores compiled under the current system on its Web site and prevents these scores from being used as evidence in liability cases until the program is fixed. In the meantime, FMCSA is required to submit to Congress and implement an improvement plan. Only when the scores are improved will they be available for the public. The bill addresses all the concerns that NRMCA has voiced with CSA, including requiring FMCSA to incorporate any data on fault into the Crash BASIC calculations.