House Panel Considering ELD Delay Amendment
A small House committee meeting Sept. 5 will determine whether to advance to the chamber’s floor an amendment that would deny funding for the implementation of a December mandate on electronic logging devices.
Republican Reps. Brian Babin of Texas, Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania and Doug LaMalfa of California are seeking to attach an amendment to a fiscal 2018 funding bill aimed at halting the Dec. 18 mandate.
Sessions
The 13 members of the committee began meeting at 4 p.m. EDT to decide whether to greenlight their amendment’s consideration once the bill reaches the floor. The panel, whose chairman is Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), sets the outline for time and debate parameters of most legislation.
The committee’s hearing is expected to take several hours. An announcement about which amendments would receive floor time was expected possibly after midnight. If the amendment is accepted, debate on the amendment and the bill would occur as early as Sept. 6.
The amendment is related to legislation Babin introduced this summer that would delay the ELD mandate for two years. While a narrow sector of the trucking industry supports efforts to delay or halt the mandate, a significant number of executives and federal regulators strongly back the Dec. 18 mandate.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will educate drivers about the ELD mandate at the North American Commercial Vehicle Show in Atlanta on Sept. 25-27. The agency also will attend the California Trucking Show in Ontario, Calif., on Oct. 15 and American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference and Exhibition on Oct. 21-24 in Orlando, Fla.
FMCSA will require carriers to have their trucks equipped with ELDs beginning Dec. 18 to improve hours-of-service compliance.
