James Oberstar: “I rise not only in opposition to this amendment, but to the many assaults upon the Federal Motor Carrier Safety…”

“I rise not only in opposition to this amendment, but to the many assaults upon the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's hours of service rule announced just recently. But this one in particular, the FMCSA revised the hours of service pursuant to legislation that we enacted that moved out of our committee, through this body, through conference, signed into law. It has taken years for them to get this rulemaking after many hours of public discussion, debate, publishing in the Federal Register; and now people who are unhappy with the outcome are coming to the Congress to overturn a rulemaking. They have another procedure to do that. We should not by law go in and just be a congressional wrecking crew for safety. Major change in the rules was to lengthen the required rest time after a long day on duty from 8 hours to 10 hours. An 8-hour rest is not enough. They barely get time to get home from their job, maybe get a shower, have something to eat, go to bed, and then they are going to be on duty again. A 10-hour off-duty period allows a driver reasonable time to get home, be with family, have dinner or lunch or whatever his shift allows, and then get that 7 to 8 hours of sleep.”