U.S. won’t publish HOS studies in the Federal Register

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 4, 1999) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater denied a request that the scientific basis for new hours-of-service regulations be made part of the public record.

Slater denied a request by American Trucking Associations president Walter McCormick that DOT publish in the Federal Register the studies it is using to design the reforms. The denial prompted ATA to claim that DOT is playing politics with the hours of service proposal.

Slater said that all of the science that has been collected in the rulemaking process is available to the public in the docket and on the Internet. To publish it in the Federal Register would be “extremely expensive . . . and unnecessary,” he said.

McCormick, in his Aug. 5 request, contended that publication would give the industry a chance to comment on the studies, and increase the chances that DOT’s proposal will be based on science.

Slater’s decision leaves ATA with a guessing game as to which studies are most important, said senior vice-president David Addington in a statement. The association was trying to get DOT to identify the specific scientific studies it is using to rewrite the rules, he said.