James Oberstar: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in very deep-seated feeling of opposition to this amendment. It has nothing to do with the…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in very deep-seated feeling of opposition to this amendment. It has nothing to do with the gentleman, the offerer; but these series of attempts to undermine hours of service in the trucking sector, we went through a very extensive debate several years ago to create the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The idea was to establish within the Department of Transportation an entity whose role would be to examine the evidence in all of the many sectors of the economy, evaluate the needs for safety and then publish rules, not one rule but rules that would address each separate sector of the driving public on the economic side of driving. The initial rules published by the Motor Carrier Safety Administration were very complex, very difficult to understand, and raised a great deal of animosity. They went back and redid the rule; and now because some sector did not get their way in the rulemaking process, they are coming to the Congress saying, fix it by law. Look at what this proposal will do. Under the previous rule, truck drivers had only 8 hours off duty. But look at that 8 hours. We had extensive hearings on this subject. A driver comes home from his or her job, gets a shower, something to eat, maybe spends a little time with his or her family.”