The U.S. Senate’s Committee on Appropriations on Thursday approved a funding bill for the Department of Transportation and other agencies by a 28-1 vote.
The bill, providing Fiscal Year 2025 funding for the departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD), includes several provisions similar to those that are included in the House’s THUD appropriations bill that passed earlier this month. Notably absent from the Senate appropriations bill is a provision that would block FMCSA from mandating speed limiters on heavy trucks. The Senate version also lacks a provision included in the House bill that would bar states from implementing trucking hours of service requirements that are more stringent than the federal standards, such as California’s meal and rest break rules.
Among similarities between the two chambers’ bills, both would:
- Expand truck parking by directing the DOT to continue to use existing discretionary grant programs to fund truck parking projects.
- Prohibit funds from being used to require livestock and insect haulers to use electronic logging devices. Such operations are currently running under a statutory exemption from ELD requirements.
- Prohibit funds from being used to require inward-facing cameras or registration of an apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor as a condition to participate in the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Program.
- Require the DOT to work with the FBI, Department of Justice and others to provide a report on cargo theft trends in the supply chain, along with a strategy to combat cargo theft.
- Address predatory towing by directing FMCSA to facilitate discussions with local, state and private sector stakeholders to develop guidelines for towing and recovery regulations and fees.
American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear said the group “will continue to push the Senate to back up its clear statements of support for truck parking and cargo theft with robust funding, and we will seek to ensure that the final conference agreement addresses trucking’s priorities.”
In addition to these provisions, all also included in the House appropriations bill, the Senate version adds a measure emphasizing the need for safety-warning devices, such as warning triangles or flares, with autonomous trucks, to protect the public. The bill states that the deployment and operation of autonomous trucks are inhibited by regulations that require the human deployment of such warning devices. The bill, if passed, would require FMCSA to review existing research and information on the safety impacts of alternative safety warning device systems or signs that can be placed on the roadway, on or around a stopped truck, without human deployment, and report back to the House and Senate appropriations committees with its findings.
Both the House and Senate versions of the appropriations bills are awaiting votes by their full respective chamber. If both bills pass as currently written, a conference committee with members of both chambers could convene to resolve differences between the bills.
[Related: Funding bill says no to truck speed limiters, yes to truck parking]