DOT Planning Reshuffle of RSPA Hazmat Roles

he Department of Transportation plans to change the way it regulates hazardous materials by splitting the functions of the Research and Special Programs Administration, DOT said last week.

Under the plan that will be sent to the Office of Management and Budget to be included in the fiscal 2005 budget, RSPA would be phased out and its functions assigned to several different federal agencies, DOT said.

The regulation of hazmat transportation would be moved from RSPA’s Office of Hazardous Materials to DOT’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy. That move would “create a single, intermodal, hazmat standard-setting agency,” the department said.