[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 84 (Thursday, May 26, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S3280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRUCK DRIVERS' WORKING HOURS RULE

 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise to speak on an amendment 
I filed last week to the Transportation appropriations bill. The bill 
passed the Senate last week. I did not offer my amendment for a vote, 
but it has been willfully mischaracterized by an industry campaign, so 
I wanted to take a few minutes to explain it.
  My amendment, Blumenthal amendment No. 4002, would improve the safety 
of our roads. America depends on truck drivers to move our goods 
around; truckers and the trucking industry perform a vital service. But 
truckers who work too many hours in a week, like any other drivers who 
spend too much time behind the wheel, get tired and can't drive safely. 
So since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, there have been 
limits placed on the number of hours they can work in a week.
  In 2003, President Bush raised the limit from 60 hours on duty in a 
7-day week, where it had been for decades, to 82 hours in a 7-day week. 
This increased truck drivers' fatigue. So in 2013, President Obama 
sought to make some changes, bringing the limit back down to 70 hours 
and ensuring that drivers could rest when the body needs it most: at 
night.
  The Obama administration's rule was based on sound science, thousands 
of comments, and, most importantly, a prioritization of safety over 
profits, but it was opposed by many trucking companies, who were 
accustomed to working their drivers to the max, regardless of the 
consequences for other drivers on the road.
  Over the past few years, in a process I will not describe in detail 
here, the trucking industry succeeded in gutting the new rule, not 
through legislation in the Commerce Committee, which has both the 
jurisdiction and the expertise, but through the appropriations process. 
Language on appropriations bills suspended the rule and required 
cumbersome studies before it could return.
  The bill before us continues this trend, including language to make 
it clear that the Bush administration rules will return after the 
study, and it enshrines a statutory cap on truck drivers' working 
hours, one that will be extremely difficult to change even in the face 
of new data or scientific evidence.
  This is terrible precedent. It encourages truck drivers to put in 
nearly double an average work week behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound 
big rig, the last place in the world we want someone who is falling 
asleep.
  My amendment would let us go back to the rules that existed in 2013, 
rather than this mess, masquerading as a solution. It would give us the 
opportunity to debate this issue fully and to put aside the 
counterproductive language in this appropriations bill.
  However, while I am not pushing for a vote on this amendment, it is 
supported by the ranking member of the Commerce committee, Senator 
Nelson, and my Commerce colleagues, Senators Markey and Booker. 
Unfortunately, due to a campaign of misinformation, it has become 
controversial. And I believe the underlying measure, including critical 
funding to fight the Zika virus, must not be delayed.
  But I am pushing for a commitment from my colleagues to work with me 
in conference and, in the long-term, to find a solution. Four thousand 
people die a year in truck crashes, and countless truck drivers report 
nodding off behind the wheel. This is something we have a duty to 
address.

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