'98 Year in Review: Capitol Hill

Highway spending dominated the first half of 1998 as Congress worked to complete a massive surface transportation bill. No sooner had President Clinton signed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century into law than trucking safety was thrust into the spotlight by a proposal to place the Office of Motor Carriers in a new home.

A Senate logjam over how much to spend on highways, bridges and mass transit broke in late February when lawmakers agreed to provide $173 billion for federal transportation projects through 2003 (3-2, p. 6). After Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) withdrew his proposal to ban triple-trailer trucks, the legislation cleared the Senate March 12 (3-16, p.1).

The House followed the Senate’s lead in voting April 1 to pass legislation authorizing $217 billion in highway and transit spending over six years (4-6, p. 1). In the process, Congress opened the door a crack so that three states — yet to be selected — may be able to impose new tolls on Interstate highways.

Removed from the legislative package before it was finalized were a House proposal to kill a truck tire tax that costs trucking $500 million annually and a mandate for a study on the use of trucking companies’ own electronic data to enforce driver hours of service (6-15, p. 1).

A proposal by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) to move the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was the proverbial cat with nine lives last year. The House removed the proposal from a Department of Transportation spending bill in July, only to see it revived in the omnibus spending bill debated by Congress in October. Aggressive lobbying by the trucking industry and the intervention of congressional leaders helped to kill the proposal in the final days of the 105th Congress (10-26, p. 1). Mr. Wolf has said he will revive his proposal.

For the full story, see the Jan. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.