3 October 2004

Highway spending extended, HOS reprieve

The following article is extracted from the 1 October 2004 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

The House and the Senate, all but conceding defeat on new legislation, passed an eight-month extension of the federal spending plan for the nation's highways.

Acting just as the old highway bill was set to expire as Congress prepares to adjourn before the election, the Senate Thursday [30 September] night backed an earlier Senate vote to keep controversial hours of service rules for truck drivers in place while federal regulators write new rules.

Action on the highway bill marked the latest in a long series of extensions by legislators who have failed to reach a compromise on spending for roads, highways and bridges….

A federal appeals court declared the existing hours of service rules illegal but the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, backed by groups representing shippers and their carriers, said reverting to old rules would throw logistics operations into chaos.

The FMCSA had asked the court to stay its order until the agency could write new rules. The congressional action now gives the agency up to a year, barring further extensions by Congress, to meet the court mandate.