WASHINGTON, (Feb. 16, 2005) — The Bush Administration has proposed legislation to convert the present hours-of-service rules into law, according to the Truckload Carriers Association.

In addition, the White House is proposing to limit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s jurisdiction over driver health to conditions that would cause death or serious injury.

Such actions could effectively end a current court challenge to the HOS rule based on driver health. According to the TCA, the legislation would override the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which threw out the current rules last summer, because the court’s opinion was based on its interpretation of Congressional intent. Under the proposed law, the FMCSA would still have the power to amend the rules in the future through the normal process.

In its most recent newsletter, the TCA said, “The White House hopes to finalize the new Highway Bill by May, and if Congress does enact the bill and includes the codification of the HOS rules into law, the FMCSA will stop their work on its current Jan. 24, 2005, HOS rulemaking proposal to reconsider the regulations.”

In July of last year the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the lobby group Public Citizen’s argument that the HOS regulations — which took effect on Jan. 4, 2004 — failed to consider the impact on the health of drivers. It ordered the FMCSA to revise the rule based on the court’s rulings.

After Congress granted the agency an extension to keep the current rules in place until September 2005, The FMCSA opened a public comment period on what changes, if any, it should implement in order to withstand further court challenges. So far the FMCSA has collected about 800 comments — mostly from drivers who seem to support the current rules as they are.

— with files from Truckinginfo.com