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December 31, 2006
TRUCKING INDUSTRY’S LOBBYING, EASED SAFETY RULES SCRUTINIZED
The New York Times has published a wide-ranging in-depth investigative report of possible links between trucking industry lobbying of the Bush Administration and weakened safety rules that favor the industry but can harm motorists. It points out that Federal standards governing maximum hours of driver service on the road and driver training have been loosened, despite pleas by safety groups and insurers that they be tightened.
“In loosening the standards,” the Times said, “the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) was fulfilling President Bush's broader pledge to free industry of what it considered cumbersome rules. In the last six years, the White House has embarked on the boldest strategy of deregulation in more than a generation. Largely unchecked by the Republican-led Congress, federal agencies, often led by former industry officials, have methodically reduced what they see as inefficient, outdated regulations and have delayed enforcement of others. The Bush administration says those efforts have produced huge savings for businesses and consumers. Those actions, though, have provoked fierce debate about their benefits and risks. The federal government's oversight of the trucking industry is a case study of deregulation, as well as the difficulty of determining an exact calculus of its consequences.”
Noting that the Bush Administration has appointed trucking industry executives and allies to high positions in the government, including at the FMCSA, the Times said the industry has also “provided some of the Republican party's most important fund-raisers. From 2000 to 2006, the industry directed more than $14 million in campaign contributions to Republicans. Its donations and lobbying fees -- about $37 million from 2000 to 2005 -- led to rules that have saved what industry officials estimate are billions of dollars in expenses linked to tougher regulations.
“But to the families of accident victims, the motor carrier agency has failed to fulfill a promise to significantly reduce fatalities, exacting a tragic personal price.”
Posted by MVHAP at December 31, 2006 11:29 AM