Senate Panel Questions Ferro Over FMCSA Confirmation Bid

By Sean McNally, Senior Reporter

This story appears in the Sept. 28 print edition of Transport Topics.

WASHINGTON — Anne Ferro, President Obama’s choice to head the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, had her day before the Senate Commerce Committee last week as its members weighed her confirmation.

During her hearing Sept. 23, Ferro, currently president of the Maryland Motor Truck Association, spent much of her time responding to questions and comments from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who is a vocal and longtime critic of FMCSA and the trucking industry.

Lautenberg said he viewed FMCSA as “an agency in dire need of reform, and given your ties, Ms. Ferro, to the trucking industry . . . I am concerned about your ability to take the bold action that we need to keep Americans safe.”

The senator was sharply critical of Ferro’s apparent unwillingness to commit to revising driver hours-of-service rules or requiring trucks to have electronic onboard recorders.

Ferro told the committee her “passion is highway safety.” She pointed to her time at Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration, where she implemented a new, graduated licensing program and the required use of ignition-interlock breathalyzer systems by convicted drunk drivers.

Lautenberg, who did most of the questioning during the hour-long hearing, pressed Ferro to commit to changing the hours-of-service rule issued by the Bush administration and ordering all trucks to use electronic onboard recorders to monitor drivers’ hours.

On the hours-of-service issue, Ferro said she would be “firmly committed to reviewing the data, the research, the analysis of the effect of the current rule and use that information to advance improvements.”

However, her answers to Lautenberg’s call for an EOBR mandate did not appear to satisfy the senator.

“We need the current administration to mandate EOBRs on every large truck, and we need Ms. Ferro’s support for this mandate,” he said.

Ferro said EOBRs “have been demonstrated to be very effective,” and she committed to examining opportunities to expand their use “if there’s data that suggests safety gains.”

“What I hear you saying is you’re not certain” EOBRs should be mandated, Lautenberg said, telling Ferro he’d like “a more affirmative answer” on the issue.

“I don’t understand,” he said of Ferro’s position on the EOBR issue, listing a number of countries — including the European Union nations, Japan, Israel, Uruguay and Brazil — that already require the technology.

“They all require it, but you express some doubt or some concerns about whether or not we ought to move ahead,” Lautenberg said.

Ferro replied, “I don’t want to suggest that it’s a matter of being convinced or not. What I want to convey — I will be a fair and balanced regulator that will use both data-driven, data-driven policymaking, sound scientific research to address that issue.”

Lautenberg also attempted to get Ferro’s support for his proposed ban on trucks in excess of 80,000 pounds on the 160,000-mile National Highway System.

Ferro said that while the Federal Highway Administration has jurisdiction over truck size-and-weight issues, “it would be among my top priorities” to make sure safety is considered in that debate.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who led the hearing in the absence of the chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), also quizzed Ferro about other truck-related issues, chiefly the creation of a drug and alcohol clearinghouse and opening the U.S. border to longhaul trucks from Mexico.

Ferro told Pryor she had reviewed legislation he introduced earlier this year to create a clearinghouse for drug and alcohol test results and said that if she were confirmed, she would be “firmly committed to implementing that system . . . to make sure employers and roadside enforcement have access to important safety information about drivers.”

On Mexican trucks, Ferro said her commitment “would be to implement any program to the standards, or to exceed the standards, of the United States.”

“Any non-national company would have to adhere at a minimum to the U.S. standards,” she said.

Pryor told Ferro at the opening of the hearing that “clearly the president has instilled his confidence,” adding that the committee “look[s] forward to working with you.”

In a prepared statement, committee Chairman Rockefeller addressed the concerns about Ferro’s background as president of MMTA:

“Ms. Ferro, you have a broad, balanced resume with experience as both a safety regulator and a trucking advocate. I expect that, if confirmed, you will use both of these experiences to properly inform and lead FMCSA by actively advancing a reformed safety agenda.

“Because some stakeholders have expressed concern with your nomination, I have worked to open the lines of communication between those stakeholders, the Department of Transportation, you and me — to begin addressing those concerns. I expect that you will continue to keep those lines of communication open.”

The committee asked Ferro to respond to several written questions this week in order for the panel to move to vote on her nomination.