OMC Transfer Is Shot Down

Trucking's most important federal agency, the Office of Motor Carriers, will stay where it is for the time being.

The attempt by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) to move the agency to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was rejected by the conferees who put together the catchall spending bill that will be rammed through Congress sometime this evening, according to the latest reports from Capitol Hill.

It took strong intervention by Trent Lott, the Senate's majority leader, to kill the language developed by Mr. Wolf, who had appealed to the House's top gun, Speaker Newt Gingrich.

American Trucking Associations lobbied fiercely to keep OMC in the Federal Highway Administration, arguing that moving the prime contact for trucking safety in the federal government didn't make sense. NHTSA regulates the safety requirements for new automobiles and trucks. By contrast, one of FHWA's main safety responsibilities is regulating how vehicles are used on the road.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R.-Pa.) and Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), key players in the conference committee that drafted detailed language for the $500 million omnibus spending bill, also rallied to ATA's side.

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