Darling Promises Reforms at Confirmation Hearing
WASHINGTON — Scott Darling, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, assured a Senate panel at a confirmation hearing the agency will quickly proceed on a range of regulations and studies aimed at improving highway safety, as well as reforming the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program.
The Senate Commerce Committee met Jan. 20 here to consider Darling’s nomination to lead the trucking industry’s regulatory agency. Obama nominated Darling in August for the post. Darling had been the agency’s general counsel and has been managing the agency in an acting capacity since 2014.
The agency “ensures those entering the industry meet stringent safety requirements,” Darling told the senators
At the relatively brief hearing, Darling expressed optimism about the agency’s ability to handle a packed regulatory agenda for 2016. The year’s outlook includes the recently announced proposed safety fitness determination rule, a final rule that would establish a new national clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results, and a proposal to require speed limiters on heavy trucks.
Darling also pledged to implement provisions included in the recently enacted FAST Act, a five-year highway funding law. This was well-received by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who oversees the trucking subcommittee, and other senators who sought assurances from Darling that the agency would reform CSA scoring for carriers.
“To me, that should be their first job of any agency. When you have a law passed by Congress, a bipartisan law, implement the reforms instead of going off on your own to regulate,” Fischer told Transport Topics after the hearing. Obama signed the FAST Act into law in December. “I would encourage the agency to implement the FAST Act as soon as possible,” she added.
As part of the FAST Act, the agency was required to remove CSA scores from public view, and Darling told the panel that next month the National Academy of Sciences would begin to review the program, another included mandate.
“We’ve talked to them about the scope, and we’re now in the process of procuring their services,” Darling said.
Fischer and committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) thanked Darling for quickly taking the scores down from public view after the FAST Act’s enactment.
“We would appreciate your continuing attention to this. It’s an issue that’s created a lot of angst,” Thune added.
Aside from CSA, Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida and Cory Booker of New Jersey, urged Darling to finalize the review of a suspended hours-of-service rule. They said the HOS restart rule was essential in addressing issues related to driver fatigue.
Darling said the restart rule’s suspension concerned him, and he told Nelson he would work with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx to proceed with the study.
The HOS restart was suspended upon enactment of a 2014 funding law. Then, a fiscal 2016 funding law added more requirements to the rule’s review. Under the restart rule, truck drivers had to take off two consecutive periods of 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. during a 34-hour restart. Despite the suspension, truckers must adhere to pre-July 2013 hours-of-service regulations.
The consensus among the panel’s leaders was that Darling, if confirmed, would be able to manage the agency’s regulatory agenda for the year. The hearing adjourned without discussion of a confirmation vote.
If there are significant delays on implementing the FAST Act’s requirements or proceeding with rulemakings, such as on the issue of speed limiters, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told Darling, “We’ll talk about this again if we don’t see this rule pretty soon.”
Darling told Blunt the agency is working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the speed proposal. Earlier this month, the agency followed through with its safety fitness determination proposal that would use data from agency and roadside inspections and investigations to evaluate whether carriers are fit to operate.
Darling said the rule would permit FMCSA to assess the safety fitness of about 75,000 companies a month by relying on CSA’s safety measurement system methodology. FMCSA said it currently is able to investigate 15,000 motor carriers annually.
Likewise, Darling assured the committee FMCSA was proceeding with a final rule this spring that would establish a new national clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results. Under the rule, FMCSA would establish the clearinghouse to include all positive drug and alcohol tests to require prospective employers to query the database before hiring a driver.
“The clearinghouse is still in the final rule form. We are looking at all options to make sure that we have all the fullest information in the clearinghouse. We will continue to search to get information to make sure that we have a complete record of each driver,” Darling told the senators.
Before departing, Blunt pressed Darling on the agency’s recent move to lower in 2016 the minimum random drug-testing rate for truck drivers to 25% from 50%. Darling told Blunt the agency reached its decision after the positive rate for random drug testing fell below a 1% threshold for three consecutive years starting in 2011. If the rate goes back above 1%, Darling said the random drug testing will go back to 50%.
“But if it doesn’t go back above 1%?” Blunt asked.
“It stays in 25[%],” Darling replied.
