Senate Transportation Funding Bill Pushes DOT on Speed Limiters Rule
WASHINGTON — A fiscal 2017 Senate transportation funding bill would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to quickly issue a long-awaited proposed rule on speed limiters for motor carriers.
“The department continues to delay its proposed rule on speed governors, which will improve safety on our nation’s roadways by preventing commercial truck and bus drivers from speeding,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairwoman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, said April 19.
“They have already missed the deadline Congress imposed,” Collins added.
Last month, Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx told Collins during a hearing of the subcommittee the proposed rule would be published this month. The speed limiter proposal would look to decrease fatal crashes on roadways.
The subcommittee met to approve the transportation funding bill by unanimous consent. The full committee is scheduled to take it up April 21.
Overall, the transportation and housing legislation would provide $56.5 billion in fiscal 2017, which is $3 billion less than President Obama’s funding request. The bill would provide $525 million for the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, infrastructure grant program.
The legislation also would provide $891 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s research on autonomous vehicles, $644 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety initiatives and $259 million for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s accident prevention efforts.
“The new funding and policies in this bill will help improve the safety of our roads,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the subcommittee’s ranking member.
When asked about any trucking-related hours-of-service provisions, Collins told Transport Topics after the hearing her legislation did not include any such proposals. She was unaware of efforts to include trucking language in the bill at the full committee.
“At this point, we just don’t know. We haven’t received any lists of amendments at this point. … And whether there will be members who will offer them at the full committee, we don’t know yet,” Collins added.
A segment of the trucking industry has expressed strong concern over federal hours-of-service regulations. As a way of addressing their concerns, the industry indicated an interest in relying on appropriations bills, such as Collins’ bill, for advancing technical language pertaining to an hours-of-service provision in a fiscal 2016 funding law. The industry’s sentiment, however, is opposed by a few transportation groups.
