Panel Reports Transportation Funding Bill with HOS Provision to Full House
WASHINGTON — The House Appropriations Committee on May 13 voted 30-21 to send a fiscal 2016 transportation funding bill to the House floor after defeating a Democratic attempt to remove a provision that would add new requirements to a study on an hours of service rule for truckers.
The panel rejected Democratic Rep. David Price of North Carolina’s effort to remove the HOS provision and other trucking-related proposals by a vote of 31-20. A copy of Price's amendment was not made available at the hearing.
Democrats on the panel objected to the trucking provision. “Christmas came early for the trucking industry,” said Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member.
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Under the bill, before the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's 34-hour restart rule is reinstated, there must be a study addressing whether the rule has safety benefits and is better for drivers in terms of fatigue, health, and work schedules. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which was contracted by the agency, has commenced the study.
A spokesman for the American Trucking Associations said the HOS provision aims to ensure the ongoing restart study is conducted fairly and its findings are taken seriously by the industry.
The panel also rejected, by a vote of 29 to 21, another Price amendment that would have increased funding for transportation safety programs.
Overall, the legislation would provide $572 million for FMCSA, the trucking regulator. It also would provide $40.25 billion in formula highway spending for the Highway Trust Fund, matching the 2015 level. That funding would be contingent on adoption of a transportation policy bill that would update the programs in a 2012 highway law which expires May 31.
Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), said, “Funding is targeted toward critical infrastructure--programs that keep our commerce moving, and that make our roads, rails, ports, and airways safer and more efficient for those who use them.”
At the start of the hearing, the chairman addressed the deadly derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia on May 12, noting that the Federal Railroad Administration, the Federal Transit Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board have responded to the scene and are investigating what caused it.
