NRMCA Secures Trucking Insurance Provision in Transportation Spending Bill

Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) passed the FY16 spending bill out of the THUD subcommittee. The largely Republican bill easily passed and provides $55.3 billion in funding, reflecting an increase of $1.5 billion from FY15 but well below President Obama’s budget request of $9.7 billion. The bill also contains many key provisions dealing with commercial motor vehicle (CMV) regulations. Included in the bill were provisions to extend last year’s suspension of the hours of service 34-hour restart rule, increase truck length limits in Idaho, use tandem 33-foot trailers and add Kansas to the Nebraska-only waiver of truck lengths for farm vehicles during harvest time.

More importantly though, the bill included a provision to suspend the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rulemaking ability to increase insurance requirements for CMVs, which would include ready mixed concrete trucks. NRMCA requested the THUD subcommittee include the insurance requirements provision to prevent any finalization of an onerous rule that aims to increase CMV insurance by an arbitrary figure and needlessly drive up costs on CMV industries; and with no increase in safety on our nation’s roadways. The provision to suspend the rulemaking in the final bill marks another victory for NRMCA. The full committee markup of the bill is expected to take place after the House returns from the May recess.