The Department of Transportation moved to salvage its much-maligned hours-of-service rules revision by proposing three more hearings on the proposal, but the immediate response from Capitol Hill indicated that the department’s tactic may be for naught.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced on Aug. 9 that it would hold three roundtable discussions beginning late in September. These would be in addition to the eight hearings the agency has held across the nation since unveiling its proposed trucking work rules changes in April.
The work rules proposal ran into a firestorm of criticism from trucking as well as other private and public groups, whose opposition led the Senate to approve a one-year moratorium on DOT implementing any such rules changes. A joint House-Senate conference committee is expected to take up the Senate’s ban when Congress reconvenes next month after the Labor Day holiday.
After FMCSA announced its plan, Scott Brenner, spokesman for Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said, “We held extensive hearings on this proposal and the chairman remains opposed to it. When we get back in session we have a very short time frame to get this transportation bill resolved.”
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