WASHINGTON — The government could begin requiring drivers hauling hazardous materials to have criminal background checks about a month from now, Annette M. Sandberg, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said Feb. 3.

WASHINGTON — Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson said the department's proposed fiscal 2004 budget of $54.3 billion represents a 6% increase over what it requested for this year.

The federal government is expected to require an in-cab warning system for new commercial trucks that alerts the driver when air pressure falls critically low in a tire, according to tire and trucking industry officials.

A federal court decision that prevented Mexico-based carriers from starting to operate throughout the United States could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, representatives on both sides of the issue told Transport Topics.

The Bush administration said it would oppose raising taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline to help pay for increased spending on highways and bridges in the 2003 budget.

James M. Loy, the director of the Transportation Security Administration, told transportation specialists last week that the agency this year would work to enhance highway and port cargo security.

WASHINGTON — Annette Sandberg, acting administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, said the trucking safety agency doesn’t have a deadline in mind to make public a new plan to reform federal regulations for commercial drivers’ hours.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it will revisit approximately 1,500 hazardous material carriers, beginning this spring, to advise them to take certain security steps to prevent the threat of turning a cargo into a weapon of mass destruction, said William A. Quade, chief of the agency’s hazardous materials division.

The Transportation Research Board's 82nd annual meeting, set for Jan. 12-16 in Washington, has an agenda focused on security, congestion, safety and reauthorization of the next surface transportation bill.

A new Congress starts business this week, seeking to resolve a deadlock on spending for 2003 that could pump in money for truck security grants, fund the Transportation Security Administration and give lawmakers more money for road and bridge construction and repair.