House T&I Panel Approves Six-Year Highway Bill
The major provisions contained in the bill to be forwarded to the full House remained intact after the committee considered 150 amendments during a more than five-hour markup session.
The committee approved a sweeping amendment offered by committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) that would mandate a performance study of bridges at least 15 years old, expand trucking opportunities for veterans and order a study of wait times for commercial driver license skills testing.
Shuster’s amendment also mandated that the Government Accountability Office do a report assessing the status of autonomous transportation vehicle technology policy developed by public U.S. entities.
The committee rejected attempts to add additional funding for transportation infrastructure and alter funding formulas to states.
With assurance from Shuster that a broader measure would be explored, several committee members withdrew amendments to ensure that existing overweight permits be allowed to be stay in effect on newly designated interstates in their states.
“The provisions in this bill improve our nation’s infrastructure, reform our surface transportation programs, refocus these programs on national priorities, promote innovation to make our surface transportation system and programs work better, maintain a strong commitment to safety, provide greater flexibility for states and local governments to address their needs, streamline the federal bureaucracy and accelerate project delivery, and facilitate the flow of freight and commerce,” Shuster said.
He added that, if passed, his bill would require the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to make “corrective actions” to the CSA program that scores motor carriers for their safety.
“As with most government agencies, FMCSA’s regulatory and enforcement programs are not keeping pace with changes in business practices and technological innovations occurring in the industry today,” Shuster told Transport Topics.
The measure, unveiled Oct. 16, calls for the National Research Council of the National Academies to conduct a study of CSA and its Safety Measurement System methodology. Then FMCSA must do a report recommending “corrective actions” to CSA and have those recommendations reviewed by the DOT Office of Inspector General.
The plan must identify areas where CSA needs to be improved, an estimated cost for carrying out such improvements and benchmarks for achieving them. It also would need to include revisions to regulations or proposals for legislation to be considered in any rulemaking related to CSA, including the program’s SMS.
Also, upon the bill’s enactment into law, certain CSA data would no longer be made public until DOT’s inspector general conducts a review of the CSA program. That data includes information regarding analysis of violations, crashes in which a determination is made that the motor carrier or the commercial driver is not at fault, alerts, or the relative percentile for each BASIC, or Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, developed under CSA.
The legislation also would establish a National Surface Transportation and Innovative Finance Bureau within DOT, streamline the environmental review and permitting process for infrastructure projects and encourage the installation of vehicle-to-infrastructure equipment.
The $325 billion measure earmarks $261 billion for highway programs and $55 billion for transit systems, with the rest dedicated for truck and bus safety grants and operations, according to committee aides.
Shuster said that after the bill is approved by the committee, it is expected to quickly move to the full House and the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee to unveil a funding plan for the bill by then.
Senators Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), ranking member of the Senate EPW Committee, urged swift followup action.
Sen. Inhofe said, “The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has taken an important step forward by completing a bipartisan markup of its six-year highway reauthorization bill. Both the Senate and the House bills have many similarities that will allow for a very short conference period. With this milestone, Congress should be able to send a bill to the president’s desk by Thanksgiving. This will allow for our nation to avoid the Highway Trust Fund hitting a dangerously low level, which DOT Sec. Anthony Foxx warned would significantly affect the 2016 construction season.”
Sen. Boxer said: “We are moving forward bit by bit toward our goal — a long-term authorization of the surface transportation bill. We have no time to waste and I urge an immediate conference."
If passed in its original form, the bill also would authorize the use of hair testing for drug screening, require FMCSA to establish a pilot program for potential truck drivers to get behind the wheel as young as 19 1/2 years old, review all of the agency’s regulations every five years and collect data on delays drivers face at loading docks.
Also included in the bill is a requirement for FMCSA to explain to Congress the reasons for regulatory delays in implementing a driver drug-and-alcohol clearinghouse rule, electronic logging device rule and standards for entry-level drivers.
“Our committee is looking to make several reforms to the FMCSA to provide more transparency in its rulemaking process and to improve fairness and accountability in its enforcement programs,” Shuster said in an interview last week with TT.
A funding structure for the bill, however, remains unclear. The person tasked with isolating funding , Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is preoccupied dealing with colleagues who are asking him to run for speaker.
Senators, including Boxer, continue to ask Shuster to get his bill to the floor. Notwithstanding the House’s markup, a short-term funding extension for highway programs is imminent since the Highway Trust Fund’s authorization expires Oct. 29.
Contributing: David Elfin
