Rep. Wolf Vows to Pursue Shift
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font size="-2" face="arial" color="gray">Michael James — Transport Topics /td> |
t a Capitol Hill press conference Oct. 21, the Virginia Republican vowed to resurrect the idea next year.
“OMC has not been doing a good job,” he asserted. “Trucking accidents, fatalities and fatality rates have been increasing at an alarming rate.”
Mr. Wolf, chairman of the House subcommittee on transportation appropriations, said he will hold hearings on highway and truck safety and on how transferring the office to NHTSA “could enhance the mission of OMC.”
He called for an investigation to determine the adequacy and effectiveness of current levels of truck inspections and carrier compliance reviews.
“There is growing concern that trucks are dangerous,” Mr. Wolf said, although he acknowledged that “many in the trucking industry work hard to maintain safe trucks.”
Mr. Wolf, who represents a district near Washington, D.C., that features clogged commuter roads and one of the busiest truck lanes in the country, surprised many colleagues when he tried to insert a provision in the 1999 surface transportation appropriations bill to transfer OMC to NHTSA.
Jack Shenendorf, chief of staff for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Mr. Wolf’s ploy violated House rules because the proposal represented a policy change, not a funding issue.
“If it was so important, why didn’t he come to our committee?” Mr. Shenendorf asked. “We had extensive hearings on TEA-21 (the highway funding act) and this was never raised. It was not the subject of any hearings.”
Mr. Wolf said he was motivated by recent reports on fatal truck accidents and “wanted to deal with this as quick as possible.”
Ironically, as chairman of the panel in charge of federal dollars for transportation, Mr. Wolf has consistently opposed the practice of earmarking money for members’ pet projects as “immoral,” according to the Almanac of American Politics.
American Trucking Associations lobbied fiercely to keep OMC in the Federal Highway Administration, arguing that moving the prime government contact for trucking safety did not make sense.
“Highway safety is too important to treat in an arbitrary and capricious way,” said Walter B. McCormick Jr., president of ATA. “NHTSA is an engineering agency. It sets design standards. It is not a highway enforcement agency.
“This particular proposal was the kind of thing that gets cooked up in the waning days of Congress. (It) was never carefully thought out, discussed with us before it was proposed, vetted with the public, introduced as a bill, subjected to hearings, given to informal debate or
ut to a vote. It’s government in the dark.”
Mr. McCormick applauded the effort of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) in defeating the Wolf proposal.
“They made sure trucking and highway safety is not subject to any one man’s whim or fancy.”
r. Wolf compared the trucking industry’s role in stymieing his OMC proposal to efforts made a few years ago to block a national commission to study the gambling industry.
“Those folks came out of the woodwork to stop us,” he said. “The trucking industry now has similarly acted. And that makes us suspicious.”
Mr. McCormick dismissed Mr. Wolf’s charge.
“He tried a power play and was beaten by power politics, plain and simple,” the ATA president said.
r. McCormick said the industry supports giving OMC more resources to do its job and is not opposed to changes that would raise the stature of safety enforcement activities within the federal government.
“We have always supported the concept of a strong, independent voice for trucking within DOT,” he said.
Trucking was not alone in opposing the transfer of OMC.
“We felt it was not a good idea,” said Russ Fiste, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, an organization of federal, state and provincial truck safety inspectors and law enforcement officers. “The people at NHTSA are experts in the four-wheel area, but not in trucking.”
r. Fiste said he also has concerns about how recent organizational changes at FHWA will impact OMC (TT, 10-5-98, p 1). He would like to see a separate motor carrier safety administration to take care of all issues related to trucks and buses.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation said although DOT did not object to the transfer of OMC from one of its divisions to another, officials felt it was inappropriate for Mr. Wolf to use an authorization bill to try to achieve it.
A spokeswoman for OMC declined to comment specifically on the Wolf proposal.
Anything that encourages a discussion of highway safety and truck safety is a good thing,” she said.
The Wolf proposal is supported by consumer groups, including Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Joan Claybrook’s Public Citizen and Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. These groups have worked closely in the past to oppose changes in truck sizes and weight.
Ms. Claybrook is a former NHTSA administrator.
