Congress Still Awaiting FMCSA Rule Proposals

(Michael James - TT) In October, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) said he wanted regulations issued promptly.

No new truck safety regulations have been issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration since October when the chairman of a key Senate subcommittee urged the head of the FMCSA to take aggressive action to eliminate the backlog of more than a dozen overdue rules.

A spokesman for the agency said officials take the deadlines “seriously” and indicated that progress was being made. Several observers said in interviews with Transport Topics that the regulatory process itself was partly to blame for the long delays, while others suggested that the rules have been held up by controversy and a change in the government’s priorities since Sept. 11.

FMCSA was created on Dec. 9, 1999, partly because members of Congress felt the former Office of Motor Carriers, an arm of the Federal Highway Administration, had failed to do an effective job of issuing new truck safety regulations.

For the full story, see the March 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.