Senior Reporter
Regulators Rush to Issue Key Proposed, Final Rulemakings, FMCSA Official Says
This fall, FMCSA plans to issue a proposed final electronic logging device rule, entry-level driver training proposed rule, safety fitness determination proposed rule and proposed rule prohibiting coercion of drivers, said Robert Miller, FMCSA’s director for policy, strategic planning and regulations.
Also this fall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is planning to release a speed-limiter proposed rule for heavy trucks, Miller said.
In early 2016, Miller said FMCSA plans to issue its final rule for a drug and alcohol clearinghouse and proposed rule to speed up the ability of military truck drivers to obtain commercial driver licenses after leaving the service.
John Lannen, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, asked Miller why the agency so often fails to meet its projected deadlines to issue proposed or final rules.
Miller said that sometimes politics slows down the process of issuing rules and that other times the direction the agency takes on a rule can change in midstream.
“The other thing that plays into it is the volume of rules,” Miller said. “If you look at MAP-21, we had 39 rulemakings that Congress asked us to do in a two-year period.”
Larry Minor, FMCSA’s associate administrator, said as agency personnel delve into the process of researching the ins-and-outs of a specific rulemaking, they often discover they “never really know what they don’t know.”
One of the more common factors that can slow down a rule is the difficult nature of quantifying how the rule will improve safety, a requirement that is strictly enforced when the White House Office of Management and Budget reviews a potential rule, Minor said.
