Congress Likely to Act in May on Funding, HOS Provision
This story appears in the May 2 print edition of Transport Topics.
A funding bill that would set a limit to the weekly hours of service for truckers is on deck for Senate floor consideration this month, while a House panel is expected to take up its version soon after, lawmakers and their staffs indicated.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who dictates which bills reach the chamber’s floor, indicated last week he would look to call up as early as May 9 a $56 billion fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill.
Senators have been debating on the floor in April the fiscal 2017 funding legislation for water and energy projects, as well as whether to boost funding for Zika virus prevention programs.
“T-HUD could wait a week. Whatever we are planning to do next is not quite as urgent as the Zika virus,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said on the floor April 28, while pushing to make Zika virus response funding a priority.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) would set at 73 hours the allowable time per week truckers may work before taking a break. Any floor action in the Senate is expected to be marked by a heated debate between Collins and opponents of the hours-of-service provision.
Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut criticized the 73 hours of allowable weekly work time for truckers after a funding committee advanced Collins’ bill by a vote of 30-0 on April 21. Last year, the Democratic senators took to the floor to push for regulations that would reduce weekly work schedules for truckers.
Neither Collins nor the Democratic senators returned requests for comment as of press time.
On the House side, senior staff at T-HUD and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee told Transports Topics the panel is likely to take up its fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill May 18. They did not share specifics about the legislation, but transportation observers expect the House bill to include similar hours-of-service provisions.
Overall, the Senate bill calls on the U.S. Department of Transportation to promote autonomous technology and expand capacity along congested freight corridors. It also would provide nearly $900 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, $644 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety initiatives, $525 million for an infrastructure grants program and $259 million for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
The HOS provision in the Senate bill is meant to address a technicality in a fiscal 2016 funding law. That law’s interpretation could result in relying on the rolling recap of weekly work limits for truckers of 60 hours in seven days and 70 hours in eight days. The fiscal 2016 funding law intended to address only the 34-hour restart having to do with the consecutive 1 a.m.-to-5 a.m. rest periods that went into effect in 2013.
A fiscal 2015 funding law suspended the 2013 restart rule, pending the results of a review and congressional oversight.
American Trucking Associations welcomes hours-of-service language in the fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill. A few groups, such as Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, have come out against it.
