[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 58 (Tuesday, April 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E916]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            STATE AND LOCAL PREDATORY TOWING ENFORCEMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 21, 2009

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, since the mid-1990's the 
authority to regulate the towing industry had been in limbo. 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 regulatory authority of tow truck operations has been preempted. 
One year later, passage of the Interstate Commerce Termination Act 
struck down the federal regulatory body that oversaw the towing 
industry.
  With no federal regulator and confusing restrictions and conflicting 
court rulings on what states and localities are permitted to regulate, 
no level of government has been able to adequately regulate the towing 
industry. This lack of regulatory authority has led to more than a 
decade of major consumer abuses by some unscrupulous towing companies 
across the country. These bad actors have continued to taint an 
otherwise much needed and respectable profession.
  Complaints about exorbitant towing fees and abusive operators grew so 
bad that in 2005, Congress agreed, through an amendment to the Safe, 
Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act--a Legacy of 
Users (SAFETEA-LU), to allow some limited state regulation in the area 
on non-consensual towing. The amendment also directed the Secretary of 
Transportation to conduct a study to identify additional means to 
protect the rights of individuals whose vehicles are towed.
  That study offers some recommendations that track with conclusions I 
made several years ago, that consumers and tow truck operators would be 
better served by removing the last vestiges of federal preemption. It 
notes that consumers needing redress for overcharges today or other 
unfair treatment would: no longer be in the Catch-22 position of having 
their State case thrown out on preemption grounds only to find that 
they may have no real recourse at the Federal level either. Since 
business practices vary from place to place, it may also be more 
practical to have nonconsensual towing regulated by the States rather 
than by the Federal Government.
  States are the more logical place to regulate towing. They already 
have an established body of law in place to do so. This legislation I 
am introducing today will bring those laws back into effect.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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