Spending Bill Cuts Off Money For Motor Carrier Safety Office

The Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety will go out of business if President Clinton signs a transportation spending bill that received final approval from Congress Oct. 4.

Appropriations for the office will be eliminated due to a provision in the Department of Transportation’s $50 billion spending bill for 2000. The measure — inserted in the bill last May by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) — would cut off funding for motor carrier safety programs for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 as long as the programs remain under control of the Federal Highway Administration.

Federal safety enforcement efforts would suffer, but roadside inspections would continue.

The Virginia Republican placed the condition in the bill to force Congress to take action on the issue that he has been pushing since July 1998, when the lawmaker tried unsuccessfully to move oversight of motor carrier safety from FHWA to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For the full story, see the Oct. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.