(APRIL 30) – U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Michael Bennet led a bipartisan letter this week to Senate Commerce Committee leaders requesting consideration of hours-of-service rules (HOS) reform for livestock haulers within surface transportation reauthorization legislation.
The letter states,”…in the absence of congressional action, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act (Public Law 114-94) is set to expire on September 30, 2020. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently passed the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019, which reauthorizes many of our nation’s surface transportation programs. As the Senate Commerce Committee has jurisdictional oversight over Hours of Service regulations applicable to commercial motor vehicles, we respectfully request that your committee work with us to provide greater flexibility for haulers of agricultural products while protecting public safety.”
Joining Senators Hoeven and Bennet on the letter were Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO), Doug Jones (D-AL), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tina Smith (D-MN), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Barrasso (R-WY), Michael Rounds (R-SD), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Thune (R-SD), David Perdue (R-GA), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Roy Blunt (R-MO), James Lankford (R-OK), and Jim Inhofe (R-ID).
USCA will continue the work it started in 2016 to secure much needed regulatory flexibility for our nation’s livestock haulers. Though they are currently exempt from the Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) mandate, more work needs to be done to make the restrictive Hours-of-Service rules workable for the industry.