The Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation (INVEST) in America Act, introduced June 3 by House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR-4), includes a section that would delay implementation of the new hours of service rule.
The bill calls for U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to initiate a comprehensive review of hours-of-service rules and the impacts of waivers, exemptions, and other allowances that limit the applicability of such rules.
The bill also requires Chao to undertake a statistically valid analysis to determine the safety impact of the new rule, including enforcement, exemptions, waivers, or other allowances of the rule.
And lastly, Chao is required to start the review within 60 days of the enactment of the bill and has 18 months to send the report to Congress.
Once completed, the new hours of service rule could not be implemented until 60 days after the submission of the secretary’s report.
There is a lengthy road for the bill to become law.
The House and Senate would have to approve the bill and then a battle between the two entities to determine the final language.
Lyndon Finney’s publishing career spans over 55 years beginning with a reporter position with the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1965. Since then he’s been a newspaper editor at the Southwest Times Record, served five years as assistant managing editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock and from November 2004 through December 2019 served as editor of The Trucker. Between newspaper jobs he spent 14 years as director of communications at Baptist Health, Arkansas’ largest healthcare system. In addition to his publishing career he served for 46 years as organist at Little Rock’s largest Baptist church.
