Senior Reporter
Panel Votes to Hide Scores During Assessment of CSA
Scores and relevant data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program would not be made public during a review of the program included in a six-year highway bill that a Senate panel approved July 15.
The Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and approved on a 13-11 party-line vote, would require FMCSA to commission a study from the Transportation Research Board to analyze the agency’s CSA program.
Under the bill, FMCSA would be required to remove data alerts, scores and percentiles from public access until the Transportation Research Board’s report and a corrective action plan have been published, and proposed recommendations completed.
CSA is used to assign Safety Measurement System scores to commercial motor carriers. Critics of the program argue the scores are not a sound safety indicator.
The bill also would authorize the secretary of transportation to establish a six-year pilot program that would allow states to enter into interstate agreements to allow for licensed drivers between 18 and 21 to operate commercially along interstates.
And, under an amendment offered by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that was adopted, motor carrier companies would be allowed to use hair tests as an alternative to urinalysis for certain pre-employment screening — a plan receiving mixed reviews but endorsed by American Trucking Associations.
Thune said the GOP measure ensures there are “much-needed” safety reforms across the trucking sector and freight and passenger rail systems, as well as in the automotive industry.
The chairman added that marking up the bill was in response to the “request of a number of Democratic colleagues made on a June 16 letter asking that this committee report a bill to allow consideration of a multiyear bill on the floor by July 20.”
“We worked hard to include input from both sides of the aisle, and we now have a bill that can move forward towards enacting a multiyear transportation reauthorization bill versus passing additional short-term extensions,” Thune said.
Before voting on passage of the legislation, the panel rejected several Democratic efforts to amend the bill by expanding federal oversight of the commercial freight industry.
The panel rejected, 13-11 along party lines, an effort by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to remove from the bill a provision that would require the director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics to establish a port performance statistics program. The provision also would require U.S. port authorities subject to federal regulation, or which receive federal aid, to report annually to BTS. And the secretary of transportation would be required to update Congress on the performance of ports.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top ranking Democrat at the markup, told Thune she was disappointed the legislation did not adhere to the committee’s “long history of working in a bipartisan fashion.”
Without support from Democrats, Cantwell said, she did not envision a highway reauthorization bill moving beyond the Senate floor, where GOP leaders are expected to combine it with a six-year surface transportation reauthorization measure recently reported out of the Environment and Public Works panel.
The Commerce and EPW panels are two of three committees with jurisdiction over transportation policy. Leaders of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, who oversee transit authority, have not indicated when they intend to report their part.
While the committee was marking up the bill, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx raised concerns over the legislation’s changes to truck and rail safety regulations. Foxx urged the panel “to avoid weakening safety and instead, to strengthen it.”
