[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15839]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION RULEMAKING PROCESS NEEDS A JUMP START

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                         HON. JAMES L. OBERSTAR

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 20, 2000

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation's Office 
of the Inspector General today released the results of a study, done at 
my request, of the Department's rulemaking process. The IG's report 
conforms what many of us involved in transportation policy have 
suspected, that the DOT is doing a poor job meeting rulemaking 
deadlines.
  According to the report, DOT is taking, on average, twice as long to 
issue rules as it did just six years ago. The report compares the 
number of significant rules completed in 1999, and the average time it 
complete each process, with corresponding figures from 1993. The 
results are not encouraging. In 1993, the department issued 45 rules 
and took an average of 1.8 years to complete work on each; in 1999, the 
department issued 20 new rules after working an average of 3.8 years on 
each. In other words, DOT is taking twice as long to do half as much.
  The study further shows that the Office of the Secretary is the 
slowest among the operating administrations in the department, taking 
an average of 6.6 years in 1999 to complete action on proposed rules. 
In 1993 the Secretary's office took an average of 4.4 years. The office 
issued the same number of rules--three--in 1993 and 1999.
  The Federal Aviation Administration showed the most significant drop 
in rulemaking productivity in the study. In 1993, the FAA issued 17 
significant rules and took an average of eight to nine months (0.7 
years) to complete the process. In 1999, the FAA issued only three 
rules, and took an average of three years to finish work on each, four 
times as long to complete less than one-sixth the workload.
  Only the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit 
Administration showed improvement in the average time to complete 
rulemaking between 1993 and 1999. However, the FRA issued only two 
rules in each of the two years studied, and FTA issued two rules in 
1993 and one rule in 1999.
  The report goes on to say that the department routinely misses 
statutory deadlines for issuing rules. The report shows that the DOT's 
record was poor in 1993 and has improved only marginally since then. In 
1993, the department completed only 12 of 29 rules mandated by Congress 
(41.4 percent) and completed only four of the 29 by the mandated 
deadline (13.8 percent). In 1999, the department completed 21 of 43 
such rules (48.8 percent) and met the deadline on 10 of them (23.2 
percent). This is a dismal record.
  The IG's report cites several reasons for these delays. In the case 
of Congressionally mandated rules, work is often delayed by a 
disagreement between Congress and the department over the content of 
the rule. The complexity of the rulemaking process also contributes to 
the problem. However, the report cites poor management by the modal 
administrators as a significant contributor to the lack of progress on 
new rules.
  In its analysis of 54 completed rulemakings, the study that found 
rules languished an average of two years on the modal administrator's 
desk with no action taken. The report said in many cases the rulemaking 
process stalled because the administrator would not make a decision on 
whether a rule should advance or be terminated, did not consider the 
rule a priority, or waited for future events, such as the development 
of new technology, that would affect the rule.
  When the modal administrator considers a rulemaking to be a priority, 
the process can move quickly. The National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration took less than one year to produce a rule providing 
grants to states with a legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08. Yet, NHTSA 
still has not completed action on a rule on the flammability of 
materials on school buses after working on it for 11 years. The report 
states that NHTSA has wanted to terminate the rule, but the Federal 
Transit Administration and the Deputy Secretary opposed terminating it. 
Even though the Deputy Secretary charged NHTSA to work with FTA to work 
out their differences, NHTSA has not worked on the rule for the past 
three years.
  These rules affect public safety--children on school buses, 
passengers in airplanes, ships at sea, motorists at rail crossings, 
neighborhoods near gas pipelines. We cannot allow bureaucratic gridlock 
to put people's lives at risk.
  To its credit, the DOT, according to this report, has accepted the 
IG's findings and is taking steps to improve its management of the 
rulemaking process.
  I have discussed this matter with Sec. Rodney Slater and urged him to 
use these remaining months to take significant action to reduce or 
eliminate this backlog of pending rules and provide a clean slate for 
the next administration.
  I am very pleased with Sec. Slater's firm commitment to follow 
through and press the modal administrators to put the rule making 
process into high gear.
  In doing so, the Secretary can show the American people that 
government can work efficiently, can be responsive to their concerns, 
and can adopt the same attitude of compliance that it demands of the 
private sector it regulates.

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