Trucking news and briefs for Monday, July 17, 2023:
A House Appropriations Committee subcommittee on Wednesday, July 12, approved an appropriations bill that includes a provision to block the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration from mandating speed limiters on heavy-duty trucks.
The House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Subcommittee approved an appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024 by voice vote that, if eventually passed, would set funding levels for the Department of Transportation for FY 2024, among others.
The bill includes a provision that states that “none of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available” by the bill “may be used to promulgate any rule or regulation to require vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of more than 26,000 pounds operating in interstate commerce to be equipped with a speed limiting device set to a maximum speed.”
With the bill being advanced by the subcommittee, it will now move to the full Appropriations Committee. A markup of the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, July 18. If it passes the committee, it will then move to the full House floor. It would still need to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Biden to be enacted.
FMCSA in 2022 published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking exploring the possibility of mandating speed limiters on trucks. A notice of proposed rulemaking is expected this year to officially propose the mandate, but it has yet to be published.
The appropriations bill isn’t the first attempt by Congress to block a speed limiter mandate. A bill introduced in the House in May by Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Oklahoma) -- the Deregulating Restrictions on Interstate Vehicles and Eighteen-Wheelers (DRIVE) Act – that would prohibit FMCSA from issuing a rule or regulation to require speed limiters on trucks. The legislation is up to 21 co-sponsors -- all Republicans.
