ATA Shifts Its Policy Focus from Congress to Agencies
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American Trucking Associations officials said 2010 was marked by shifting their policy focus to regulatory agencies from Capitol Hill, while also changing some of the key voices delivering the federation’s message.
“I think a lot of our battles are more in the regulatory arena,” ATA President Bill Graves said in February, “and part of my saying that is I just don’t think reauthorization [of the highway bill] is imminent.”
Graves was prescient, as Congress was gridlocked for the bulk of the year and was unable to pass a long-term highway bill.
ATA’s then-chairman, Tommy Hodges, said in February that the group’s winter leadership meeting was spent homing in on that new agenda.
“We were awfully concerned last year about the new administration and their agenda,” he said. “We have refocused some of our energies from a legislative approach to a regulatory approach.”
Part of that new focus included the elevation of Dave Osiecki to senior vice president of policy and regulatory affairs in January. Osiecki had been vice president of safety, security and operations.
At the same time, ATA also promoted Robert Digges as its chief counsel. The pair replaced Rick Holcomb, who had led a combined law and regulatory affairs department but left for a position with the state of Virginia.
During 2010, ATA sued the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, hoping to force the issuance of a rule spelling out what evidence fleets need to retain to support their drivers’ logbooks. The lawsuit resulted in a court order that FMCSA issue a rule by the end of the year.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the [Department of Transportation] . . .” Graves said, “but we had to show the department how important the supporting-documents issue is to our industry.”
ATA also continued to lock horns with the Port of Los Angeles over the concession provisions of the port’s clean trucks plan.
In federal court, the port initially won a victory when Judge Christina Snyder upheld the port’s ban of owner-operators. However, a higher court granted an injunction to ATA that kept the port open to contractors while the federation appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision on that appeal is not expected until next summer.
Also during the year, ATA reshuffled its representation on Capitol Hill, as long-time lobbyist Tim Lynch left in June with “a somewhat heavy heart” to take a position with a Washington law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.
Lynch was replaced shortly before ATA’s annual Management Conference & Exhibition by Mary Phillips, a former ATA and DOT staffer who most recently worked for the Senate Commerce Committee.
Phillips’ hiring nearly coincided with ATA’s selection of Barbara Windsor, president of Hahn Transportation Inc., as the federation’s first female chairman. The announcement was made at the MCE meeting in Phoenix.
Windsor said, after taking ATA’s top job, she hoped to make progress on a number of issues — ranging from reauthorization to the hours-of-service dispute.
