Congress Passes Highway Bill; Measure Goes to President
ongress passed a $286.4 billion federal highway and mass transit bill that would fund transportation projects through 2009, and the measure contains several positives for the trucking industry, according to American Trucking Associations.
"Especially important for truck drivers and others sharing the road is a new funding source for law enforcement in each of the 50 states to enforce traffic violations by other motorists around large trucks," ATA said in a scorecard it released following the bill's passage.
While the bill contained several important victories for the trucking industry, codification of the existing hours-of-service rules for truck drivers was not included.
President Bush said in a statement he would sign the bill that “will strengthen and modernize the transportation networks vital to America's continued economic growth,” the Associated Press reported.
The Senate’s 91-4 vote came following the House’s approval of the measure by a 412-8 vote. Lawmakers then left Washington for their August recess carrying promises of new highway and bridge projects they had secured for their states and districts, AP said.
Under the legislation, each state would receive a share of federal highway funding depending on their contributions — through the federal gas tax — to the Highway Trust Fund. The bill, running more than 1,000 pages, also specifies thousands of projects requested by individual members, AP said.
Some lawmakers, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were concerned about what they said were dozens of questionable projects in a highway bill, including $3 million to fund production of a documentary about infrastructure advancements in Alaska, AP said.
But other lawmakers say the projects are determined on merit and see them as essential to states and localities, saying that money for infrastructure is well spent when congestion costs American drivers 3.6 billion hours of delay and 5.7 billion gallons of wasted fuel every year.
Substandard road conditions and roadside hazards are a factor in nearly one-third of the 42,000 traffic fatalities annually, officials say, and every $1 billion in highway construction creates 47,500 jobs, AP said. Transport Topics
American Trucking Associations' statement on the Highway Bill
The American Trucking Associations and ATA President Bill Graves said the six-year, $286.4 billion highway spending bill approved by Congress last night addresses a host of the trucking industry’s critical needs.“While Congress included several initiatives that we believe will improve highway safety, we are disappointed that they failed to codify hours of service regulations as the Administration requested. We remain concerned that Congress’ inaction on Hours of Service will negatively impact overall highway safety,” said Graves, “and force the revision of a rule that took eight years to write and is successfully serving its intended purpose.”
Despite support from ATA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the new highway spending bill does not codify the current hours-of-service rules, which set driver work and rest limits. However, the bill includes language to clarify the agricultural exemption to the federal HOS regulations. The bill will make the exemption permanent in federal law, provides standard definitions of agricultural commodities and farm supplies to be used by commercial transporters of agricultural commodities during the planting and harvesting season in each state.
Especially important for truck drivers and others sharing the road is a new funding source for law enforcement in each of the 50 states to enforce traffic violations by other motorists around large trucks. ATA also expects improvement in the safety of intermodal shipping container chassis as equipment owners, generally ocean carriers and railroads, will now be responsible for their equipment meeting highway safety operating standards.
The industry can also now electronically check the safety records of prospective truck drivers, a key ATA safety priority.
Elsewhere, ATA successfully blocked a mandatory fuel surcharge that would have increased consumer costs for everything shipped by truck.
ATA successfully worked to revise the process by which commercial truck drivers with hazardous materials (HazMat) endorsements to their commercial drivers’ licenses are screened. The new bill directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to develop a system for notifying carriers if drivers fail to meet security criteria. It also requires TSA to initiate a rulemaking to eliminate duplicative federal background checks. Canadian and Mexican operators transporting HazMats will be required to undergo a similar background check as their U.S. counterparts.
The legislation allocates $5 million for truck driver training as part of efforts to increase the number of people entering the profession. These funds come at a time when the trucking industry is experiencing a nationwide shortage of 20,000 professional long-haul truck drivers. That figure is expected to increase to 111,000 by 2014.
ATA is concerned that the bill continues to allow a limited number of tolls on existing interstate highways. ATA believes that tolls are an inefficient funding mechanism that double taxes motor carriers and causes substantial diversion of traffic to other less-safe roads.
