WASHINGTON — A Massachusetts lawmaker took what he called an “unusual step” by withdrawing support for laws aimed toward improving motor carrier safety standards and for which he was an original co-sponsor. But a truck broker lobby backing the laws disputed his understanding of the bill’s purpose.
The Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, which was debated at a supply chain hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this month and supported by the Transportation Intermediaries Association, establishes an interim motor carrier rating standard until the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issues a final rule overhauling its current system. TIA and lawmakers on either side of the aisle acknowledge the system is woefully inadequate.
During a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup of the bill on Tuesday, nevertheless, Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who introduced the bill in February with Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., said that recent evaluation provided to him by committee staff just hours before the markup led him to conclude that the bill as currently written wouldn’t improve safety within the short term.
“We just learned this morning … that the three things it does to ascertain [the] interim standard exist already,” Moulton told committee members.
He was referring to language within the bill stating that for a broker to be considered “reasonable and prudent” in contracting with a carrier, the broker must confirm that the carrier chosen has a sound registration, carries minimum insurance and shouldn’t be deemed unfit to operate by FMCSA.
As noted earlier throughout the markup, carriers must have already got those three requirements in place to legally operate. Because that’s the case, “the interim standard shouldn’t be as much as snuff,” Moulton concluded.
“It doesn’t within the interim period do anything to enhance highway safety. I’m not satisfied with the interim steps that it takes. So I’m going to take the weird step of voting against the bill that I actually have been a part of co-leading within the hopes that we are able to improve it and get it to the purpose where it truly does improve highway safety — not only in the long run but within the short term as well.”
Asked to comment, Chris Burroughs, TIA’s vp of presidency affairs, acknowledged that motor carriers are already required to have in place the three criteria outlined within the bill with a view to legally operate. “But that’s not the purpose of the laws,” Burroughs told FreightWaves.
“The purpose of the laws is that there are not any standards currently that require brokers and shippers to examine to ensure the motor carrier has those things in place after they contract with them. This laws would put that standard in place.”
The bill currently has 15 Republican and 4 Democratic co-sponsors. A Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Colin Allred of Texas, withdrew support from the bill earlier within the week.
Some House Democrats, resembling Rick Larsen of Washington, consider the bill to be less about boosting safety and more about giving brokers liability cover in cases where the motor carriers they hire are involved in crashes.
“This bill is a response to litigation, not supply chain challenges,” Larsen said throughout the markup.
Although the bill was approved and moved out of committee, losing the support of a key sponsor “doesn’t help” its probabilities going forward, Burroughs said.
“The truth is, the opposite side of the Capitol is controlled by the Democratic Party, and we’ve been working to get that bipartisan support in each chambers. Unfortunately lots of that effort was lost yesterday. We’ll need to regroup and see where we go from here.”
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