Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by thanking Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for their hard work on the underlying bill and for considering Congressman Van Hollen's and my amendment. Our amendment is simple. It would merely restore the ability of State and local governments to regulate the tow truck industry. Through a provision slipped into the Federal Aviation Administration Act of 1994 that defined the tow truck industry as an interstate carrier, State and local regulation of tow truck operations has been preempted. But the very next year, passage of the Interstate Commerce Termination Act struck down the Federal regulatory body that was overseeing the towing industry. So it essentially left it without any oversight despite widely reported consumer abuses. In the years since, a number of conflicting court rulings have been made on cases between tow operators and localities. Some decisions have upheld some aspects of local regulations and others have stayed silent. With no Federal regulator and a confusing patchwork of Federal preemption and judicial rulings, no level of government has been able to adequately regulate the towing industry. This lack of regulatory authority has led to more than two decades of major misconduct by some unscrupulous towing companies, and these bad operators continue to taint an otherwise much-needed and respectable profession. State and localities are the logical towing regulators.…”