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Six Month Extension to Highway Bill Proposed

Three prominent players in the debate over passage of a new federal highway bill introduced a six-month extension to the legislation on Tuesday, September 7. Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT), who sponsored the measure, is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He was joined by Senators Kit Bond (R-MO), who chairs the panel's transportation subcommittee, and Harry Reid (D-NV), the Democratic Whip.

The highway bill, which expired last October, has been extended several times, and is currently under consideration by a House-Senate conference committee. The latest extension expires on Friday for highway programs and on September 30 for other funding categories.

The legislation has been mired in controversy over how expensive it should be and how much money each state should receive. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) said yesterday that House leaders have made no decision on an extension yet. A spokesman for Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Inhofe believes that a long-term bill is still possible this year and would prefer a shorter extension. In addition, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said Hastert opposes a long-term extension, preferring to keep the pressure on for a multi-year bill.

There are a number of other issues of importance in the two bills that have yet to be resolved, including the granting of tolling authority to states, new hazmat rules, and replacement of SSRS, among others. For more information about the legislation, to visit ATA's reauthorization page on the internet, click here. To view ATA information about tolling proposals, click here . For additional information, contact Darrin Roth at (703) 838- 1900 or droth@trucking.org.

Senate Defeats GPS Requirement in DHS Bill

The U.S. Senate tabled and defeated, by a vote of 55 to 34, an amendment to the Department of Homeland appropriations bill that would have required trucks transporting hazardous materials to be equipped with global positioning satellite tracking devices and required route plans to be prepared and filed with DHS prior to transporting hazardous materials. The amendment, introduced Sept. 9 by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), also would have required DHS to expand background checks to all CDL holders.

In response to the trucking industry's initial lobbying efforts, Schumer modified his amendment by removing language requiring the establishment of an identification and tracking system for HazMat trucks and mandating background checks for all CDLs.

The revised amendment provided money for the Transportation Security Administration to"support efforts for identification and tracking for shipments of hazardous materials and continue and expand upon the background check system for commercial driver licenses with a HAZMAT endorsement..." ATA continues to oppose this modified language. The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill will now go to conference with the House of Representatives.

American Trucking Associations thanks all of our members who contacted their senators and helped to defeat this amendment. To view a list of those senators who supported ATA in its efforts and defeated the Schumer amendment, click here. We encourage you to contact these members and thank them for their effort.

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

June Transportation Services Index Falls for Second Consecutive Month

The Transportation Services Index fell 0.2 percent in June, the second consecutive monthly decline from the all-time high recorded in April, the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported on Tuesday, September 7.

A revision in the April and May 2004 data changed what had been initially reported as a slight increase from April to May (from 124.2 to 124.3) to a decrease (from 124.5 to 124.1). The June level of 123.9 (1996=100) represents a further decrease from what is now the all-time high in April. The June 2004 level is still 6.9 percent higher than the 115.9 level recorded in June 2003.

TSI is a single seasonally adjusted index of the month-to-month changes in the output of services provided by the for-hire transportation industries, including truck, railroad, air, inland waterways, pipeline, and local transit. The index includes historic data from 1990 to the present, allowing for examination of trends, peaks and low- points. Changes are measured against the base year of 1996. The TSI is still under development and is considered experimental. The next release is scheduled for Oct. 6. For more information, click here.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Highway Watch® and Con-Way Transportation Services to Team Up for Highway Safety and Security

Con-Way Transportation Services, Inc., the Ann Arbor, MI-based subsidiary of CNF Inc., will become the first national motor carrier to participate corporate wide in the American Trucking Associations' (ATA) Highway Watch® program.

Highway Watch® is a national safety and security program that utilizes the skills, experience, and "road smarts" of America's transportation workers to help prevent terrorists from using large vehicles or hazardous cargoes as weapons and to protect America's critical highway transportation infrastructure. The program is administered by ATA under an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.

Con-Way has committed to putting Highway Watch® training materials into the hands of more than 13,000 of their drivers and encouraging voluntary participation in the national program. The curriculum teaches drivers how to observe and properly report suspected national security threats and highway safety incidents.

In March 2004, ATA entered into a $19.3 million cooperative agreement with DHS to expand its Highway Watch® program on behalf of the highway sector. Fueled by this cooperative agreement and an additional $21 million earmarked for 2005, Highway Watch® will not only provide instruction for hundreds of thousands of highway transportation professionals-- including commercial truck and bus drivers, school bus drivers, state Department of Transportation (DOT) workers and others-but also administer a national Highway Watch® Call Center as well as the Highway Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). Highway transportation sector professionals are welcome to join Highway Watch® by calling the national toll free number at 1-866-821-3444.

HOS Stay of Mandate Briefing Completed

On September 21, ATA filed its final brief in support of its request that the D.C. Court of Appeals stay the effective date of its decision overturning the current hours-of-service (HOS) regulations. Earlier on August 30, ATA and FMCSA separately had asked the Court for a stay until such time as a new rule, addressing the Court's concerns, is issued and goes into effect. ATA explained in its request that, without a stay, hours-of-service regulation would automatically revert to the old HOS regime and that such a revival would cause chaos and diminish highway safety. ATA, noting that an 8-month transition period was needed to move to the current rules, explained that it would be practically impossible to immediately switch back to the old HOS rules and that even a more measured transition would needlessly cost the trucking industry hundreds of millions of dollars. ATA also cited the undisputed safety benefits of the current HOS rules (e.g. extended mandatory off- duty periods) that would be lost if old HOS rules were put back in place and explained that in the aggregate the current HOS rules are demonstrably safer from a fatigue-reduction standpoint than the old rules. FMCSA recognized the same problems for the trucking industry in its filing and also pointed out the wide-spread enforcement problems a quick move back to the old HOS rules would cause.

A number of independent organizations, including the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), National Industrial Transportation League, and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), made amicus filings supporting the stay request. On September 13, Public Citizen filed a brief predictably opposing the ATA and FMCSA motions. Public Citizen dismissed the costs to trucking out-of-hand and called the enforcement concerns expressed by FMCSA exaggerated. Public Citizen alleged that the old HOS rules were preferable from a safety standpoint to the current rules. In its reply brief files on the 21st, ATA defended the stay procedure and reiterated the anti- safety consequences that would occur if there was a reversion to the old HOS rules. ATA pointed out that Public Citizen had no evidence to support its speculation that the old HOS rules were safer than the current rules and that the D.C. Circuit's decision certainly did not address or decide that issue. ATA's reply brief completes the briefing and the request for stay is now considered submitted to the Court for decision. While there is no deadline for the Court's decision, it is expected within the next few weeks. For more information, contact Robert Digges at 703-838-1889 or rdigges@trucking.org.