Sen. Susan Collins Says HOS to Be Tweaked in Fiscal 2017 Transportation Funding Bill, According to Reports
Hours of service regulation would be tweaked under a fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill a Senate subcommittee advanced April 19, according to Sen. Susan Collins as quoted in Politico.
The legislation would set at 73 hours the allowable hours per week truckers may work before taking a break, Collins reportedly told Politico on April 19. That would pertain to driving or other duties during seven calendar days.
Collins (R-Maine) oversees transportation funding measures as chairwoman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. Her subcommittee, often referred to as the THUD panel, advanced the fiscal 2017 transportation funding bill April 19 unanimously. The HOS provision in the funding bill would address a technicality in a fiscal 2016 funding law.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the transportation bill April 21. A spokesman for the full committee would not confirm if the provision on hours of service for truckers was included in the bill. The full committee, the spokesman told Transport Topics, would release the legislation soon after its approval.
Collins’ office did not comment on the Politico article. Reacting to her account of the HOS provision in the bill to Politico, American Trucking Associations expressed gratitude.
“We appreciate the recognition by the Senate THUD subcommittee that the legislative drafting error from 2016 needs to be fixed,” ATA Press Secretary Sean McNally said. “ATA also knows that while professional truck drivers do not work wildly inflated weekly work hours that anti-truck groups claim, we understand the subcommittee’s sensitivity to claims a handful of drivers might abuse the restart rule to work long hours in a week.”
McNally added, "We look forward to working with members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle to ensure that professional truck drivers continue to have the opportunity to get extended off-duty rest periods that reset their work week.”
An HOS 34-hour restart provision, which calls for consecutive 1 a.m.-to-5 a.m. rest periods, has been suspended since enactment of a fiscal 2015 funding bill pending a review. A fiscal 2016 funding bill sought to enhance the restart review’s objectives.
