Wolf Vows to Succeed on OMC Move

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, vowed to get Congress to support his plan to move the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"It’s not going to go away," Mr. Wolf said last week. "That’s one thing about me: When I pick up an issue, I don’t put it down. The trucking industry thinks all it has to do is hire all these top lobbyists" to defeat this plan.

The industry, led by the American Trucking Associations, last fall derailed a move by Mr. Wolf to slip the OMC transfer through Congress in an appropriations bill, in violation of House rules of order. Mr. Wolf lambasted trucking, saying the industry was trying to prevent improvements in highway safety he said would result from the shift to NHTSA.

Mr. Wolf, speaking to a reporter before a public meeting on how to improve safety on the busy Interstate 81 corridor through Virginia, said he "hasn’t seen anything positive coming out of the industry in a long time."

He said he wouldn’t talk any more to reporters from Transport Topics because it is owned by ATA. "I can have the (Washington) Post; I can have the evening (TV) news. Why would I talk to you?" he asked a TT reporter.

Transport Topics has the largest paid circulation of any news publication in the transportation sector.

Mr. Wolf, who cosponsored the I-81 session with another Virginia Republican, Rep. Robert Goodlatte, said he originally intended to make a few brief remarks at the hearing before returning to the House to vote for a new Speaker.

He changed his mind after several attendees criticized his plans, saying they had traveled more than 100 miles to testify before him at the Jan. 5 session.

Mr. Wolf, who chairs the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, said his panel would hold hearings next month on the proposed OMC transfer and other ideas, such as the creation of a separate office within the Department of Transportation to oversee trucking.

In the past, Mr. Wolf has accused the OMC of failing to do a good job, and of letting truckers operate unsafely. "Trucking accidents, fatalities and fatality rates have been increasing at an alarming rate," he said last year.

At the Harrisonburg hearing, he said: "Although large trucks represent only 3% of all registered vehicles on the road, they were involved in over 25% of passenger vehicle occupant deaths in multiple vehicle crashes."

Mr. Wolf and trucking have sparred over accident statistics, with the congressman saying they show increased truck involvement in fatal crashes, and the industry stating they show a decline when measured against the increase in miles driven.

The industry, led by the ATA, has opposed the transfer of OMC. "NHTSA is an engineering agency. It sets design standards. It is not a highway enforcement agency," said ATA President Walter B. McCormick Jr.

Mr. McCormick encouraged Congress to take a more comprehensive look at highway safety, and to devise a plan to make roads safer for truckers and passenger vehicles.

For the full story, see the Jan. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.