Editorial: Carrier Agency Considered

Step by step, inch by inch, Congress is moving closer to consensus on how best to improve truck safety. One big step came last week when Rep. Frank Wolf signaled his willingness to consider creating a separate motor carrier administration and expressed his commitment to getting the job done this year.

The Virginia lawmaker, who has boosted truck safety into the national spotlight, inserted language into the Department of Transportation funding bill cutting off money for safety programs after Oct. 1 unless truck safety is moved out of the Federal Highway Administration. Congress won’t go home unless they act on truck safety, Wolf proclaimed.

It is clear that Wolf’s commitment to improving safety on the nation’s highways remains as strong now as it did last summer when he tried to move the Office of Motor Carriers to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Wolf is now showing his willingness to consider a motor carrier administration. We applaud his commitment as well as his willingness to change his mind when presented with evidence that clearly shows that a trucking administration is the way to go.

The leadership of the House Transportation Committee is readying legislation that will either increase the visibility of truck safety at the government level or create a new safety administration.

Even former House Public Works Committee Chairman Norm Mineta, hand-picked by Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater to conduct an independent review of federal safety efforts, said he likes the idea of a motor carrier administration. But he doesn’t think Congress will come up with the money to pay for it.

The key remaining opponents of the idea are Secretary Slater and safety advocates. One of Slater’s assistants said the Department of Transportation is willing to work with Congress on a truck safety bill. Safety advocates Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen and Jackie Gillian of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety continue to press for a transfer of truck safety to NHTSA.

That proposal is no better today than it was when Rep. Wolf first proposed it a year ago. NHTSA is primarily an engineering agency whose rule writers and enforcement officers are focused on auto and truck design standards, not enforcement of on-road safety.

Months of public hearings and investigations by several government agencies have served only to bolster the need for a separate motor carrier safety administration.