Washington Power Shift
Republicans control of Congress has big implications for trucking.
OLIVER B. PATTON
WASHINGTON EDITOR
The power shift in Washington triggered by the mid-term elections has significant implications for trucking.
Business interests foresee that they will be better served by a Republican-controlled Congress come next year. Republicans won a majority of seats in the Senate, wresting control over that chamber's agenda from the Democrats, and they strengthened their grip on the House.
Republicans will have only a slight majority in the Senate, so they will not have free rein, but they will have control over committees and they will set the legislative schedule. Although appointments are not yet confirmed, new committee chairmen will be in positions to affect trucking issues that are now in play.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is in line to take over the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee from James Jeffords, I-Vt. That will put Inhofe at the helm while the Senate considers trucking's most significant legislation next year — reauthorization of the federal highway program.
With Inhofe and his counterpart in the House, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, in charge, reauthorization "will not be business as usual," said Tim Lynch, president of the Motor Freight Carriers Assn. "There will be innovative ideas."
Inhofe, for example, has long believed that states should have more control over how highway money is spent, Lynch said. Now, he will be in a position to press his agenda.
Lynch also expects Young to push for a program to test truck-only lanes on certain highways. Dedicated lanes have long been considered radical, but Young is supporting the idea of building heavy-duty truck lanes along existing Interstates. The concept envisions lanes with their own exit and entrance ramps, financed by tolls collected from the trucks that use them. The trucks would be exempt from federal and state fuel taxes for their tollway mileage.
"I can assure you that Young is extremely serious about that issue," Lynch said.
The power shift on Capitol Hill already has affected a major piece of transportation-related legislation — creation of a new Department of Homeland Security. That bill would move the Transportation Security Administration from the Department of Transportation to DHS, in effect creating another bureaucratic entity with which trucking interests will have to contend.
Until the election, the proposal had been stalled by fighting between labor interests and the Bush administration over control of the new department's 170,000 employees. But a week after the election, the House passed the bill, and as HDT went to press the Senate was expected to act — a reflection of the changed political landscape.
Another leadership change will be John McCain, R-Ariz., taking over from Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., at the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The Commerce Committee sets truck safety policy, and McCain advocates tough safety regulation. He also supports opening the U.S. border to Mexican trucks.
Gordon Smith, R-Ore., will take over the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation from John Breaux, D-La.
At the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which handles the ergonomics issue, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., is in line to take over from Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. Gregg supports the Bush administration's voluntary approach to regulating ergonomics — he sees it as a more efficient approach to controlling workplace injuries.
In the House, Republicans gained at least five seats, boosting their majority from 223 to 228. Democrats hold 203 seats, with one independent and three undeclared.
This means that committee leadership will remain intact, unless there are changes unrelated to the election. Don Young continues as chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and James Oberstar, D-Minn., stays on as ranking member.
Thomas Petri, R-Wis., will continue to head the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over truck safety regulation. The ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, Robert Borski of Pennsylvania, is retiring at the end of this year. That slot may be taken by Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said Lynch.
Among the Bush administration's legislative goals for the new Congress are several items of significance to trucking: tax reform — possibly accelerating rate cuts that already have been passed, and increasing writeoffs for business — and limiting class-action lawsuits.
Democrats did gain ground in gubernatorial races — but the election did not change the cold, hard reality of the state budget crisis. Governors are looking at a collective $49 billion shortfall in 2003, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, up from about $37 billion this year.
According to Ray Scheppach, executive director of the National Governors' Assn., the states are in the worst fiscal crisis they've seen since the Second World War. He forecasts draconian cuts.
The traditional wisdom is that a Republican Congress is a business-friendly Congress, and trucking may indeed benefit on Capitol Hill next year. But in the states — where most trucking companies have their closest contact with government — the primary policy determinant will be King Budget.
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