[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 34 (Friday, February 28, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               STATE AND LOCAL PREDATORY ENFORCEMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 28, 2014

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. 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 exempt from 
state and local regulation. One year later, passage of the Interstate 
Commerce Termination Act eliminated the federal regulatory body that 
oversaw the towing industry, leaving the industry without proper 
federal, state or local regulation.
  With no federal regulator, 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 two 
decades of major consumer abuses by some unscrupulous towing companies. 
These bad operators 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 
of 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 practies vary from place to place, it may also be more 
practical to have non-consensual 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 bill would 
bring those laws back into effect by removing federal preemption and 
allow state and local governments the ability to establish common-
sense, pro-consumer trespass towing protections for their residents.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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