Saying it has ignored Congress, the Government Accountability Office and members of the trucking industry, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) Wednesday leveled some harsh criticism at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and called for reforming the agency.
Her remarks came during and after a hearing on Capitol Hill of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety and Security, which she chairs.
Fischer specifically criticized FMCSA’s handling of the 34-hour restart rule and the continuance of making Compliance, Safety and Accountability (CSA) scores available for public view.
The senior senator from Nebraska plans to introduce reform legislation to make FMCSA more inclusive of Congress and industry stakeholders and increase its transparency. Fischer also said she will author legislation to require the agency to conduct more robust and comprehensive cost benefit analyses of proposed regulations.
“Some of the FMCSA’s actions over the past years challenge our shared goal of enhancing safety,” Fischer said in her opening remarks. She also referenced a 2014 GAO report that concluded FMCSA’s CSA rankings were inaccurate, costing trucking companies business and leading to other residual effects, such as higher insurance rates for carriers.
“When confronted with these findings, FMCSA completely disregarded GAO’s recommendations to address flaws in FMCSA’s implementation; major stakeholders, including law enforcement, requested that FMCSA remove CSA scores from public view.”
She also questioned the agency’s handling of the 2013 changes to federal hours-of-service rules for truck operators.
