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ture loans or guarantees.
Since that time, other bills following the
same template have been introduced in
Congress, but none went anywhere. If such
a bill is taken up in the 115th Congress, it
will likely be folded into comprehensive tax
reform, according to Burnley, who was one
of the earliest and most vocal supporters of
Delaney’s bill.
What isn’t in dispute is that the nation’s
infrastructure—which broadly defined,
encompasses transportation, water, and
broadband—is in dire need of more funding and visibility. The U.S. currently spends
1. 3 percent of its gross domestic product
on infrastructure, about 43 percent of what
was spent on it in the early 1980s, according to data from CG/LA Infrastructure
Inc., a consultancy. There is no dedicated
infrastructure budget and no cabinet-level
agency to oversee programs, the group said,
affirming its belief that infrastructure hasn’t
been a top priority for this or any recent
administration.
; Motor carrier safety: Whether it be
driver “hours of service” regulations; the
Compliance, Safety and Accountability
(CSA) rules; a requirement that every truck
be equipped with an electronic logging
device (ELD); or testing drivers for sleep
apnea and substance abuse, the past eight
years have witnessed a seemingly nev-er-ending series of unfunded mandates for
motor carriers and drivers.
Given that all of the mandates were
aimed at promoting highway safety, it may
be bad form for the Trump administration
to try to scuttle them. But that may not
stop a Republican Congress from doing so.
Kathryn B. Thompson, former Department
of Transportation general counsel in
the Obama administration and today a
Washington-based lawyer, said truck safety
would not be a high priority in a Trump
administration. Thompson added, however, that Congress is likely to throttle back on
some safety regulation and that President
Trump will sign “any bills that come across
his desk” that fulfill Congress’s intent.
The most likely targets, she said, are the
hours-of-service regulations and the most
controversial aspects of CSA, a grading sys-
tem for carriers and drivers that has been
embroiled in legal and regulatory
battles for years.
One safety measure likely to sur-
vive intact is the mandate requiring
that all fleets, including owner-op-
erators, install electronic logging
devices in their trucks by the end
of 2017. The mandate, which was
recently upheld by a federal appeals
court, has the support of big truck-
ers and will save money over time as
well as enhance safety, Thompson
said. Burnley added that Congress
or the Trump administration may
delay the implementation date but
neither will gut the rule.
; Labor: The last few years have
seen transport union interests pre-
vail on several fronts. In a high-pro-
file case, the ground-delivery unit
of Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx
Corp. agreed in mid-2015 to pay
$228 million to settle a suit filed by
drivers in California who alleged
the unit improperly classified them
as independent contractors. A 2014
law in New York state made it more
difficult for businesses to classify a
commercial driver as an employee.
Then in May, the Department of
Labor (DOL) ruled that employers
must grant overtime pay to full-
time salaried workers making less
than $47,476 a year. The current
rules limit overtime eligibility to
workers making less than $23,600
a year.
The public warehousing industry, which employs many salaried
workers at the affected thresholds,
has argued the new policy will raise
costs and hinder job creation. Joel D.
Anderson, former president of the
International Warehouse Logistics
Association (IWLA), which is fighting the measure, said p. 20
