WASHINGTON - House lawmakers plan to examine a federal program that licenses hazardous-material truck drivers, with some members saying the current approach needs to be refined.

“We need to take a very, very hard look at [the licensing program] to see if it’s most effective,” said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., chairman of the House Economic Security, Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

The subcommittee held a hearing on hazmat trucking Tuesday.

At the hearing, the trucking industry cited a number of grievances about the program, including the list of potentially hazardous materials that require a license to haul.

Truckers complain that the list — developed by the Department of Transportation — includes products such as paint, nail polish and perfume, in which terrorists would have little interest.

“These products do not represent any more of a threat to our homeland than carrying a truckload of bread,” said Stephen Russell, a trucking company executive and chairman of the Homeland Security Policy Committee of the American Trucking Associations, in submitted testimony.

Lungren agreed that the hazmat list includes products that likely present no terrorist threat, but said they could present cleanup issues.

“It’s almost as if we’ve mixed apples and oranges,” he said. “We have an opportunity to get it right . . . if we’re looking at everything, we’re not going to be able to look at those products that need to be looked at.”

Industry groups also say truck drivers are burdened by the mandatory background check process for drivers seeking a license to haul hazmat. The examination includes mandatory fingerprinting and a criminal history check, as well as immigration status and intelligence searches, according to Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rules.

Some truckers say they have to travel several hours to an approved fingerprint collection site, losing valuable working time in the process. Moreover, fees for licensing applications run between $94 and $134, and are required every five years. According to Russell, the current background check program would apply to some 2.7 million truck drivers — more than two- thirds of active drivers.

Other industry groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agree that the licensing process needs a second look. “It is an undue burden to require that truck drivers undergo expensive and lengthy background checks to haul items such as paint, nail polish and soda,” said Andrew Howell, vice president of homeland security policy at the chamber.

A representative from the TSA said the agency would look into refining the background check process. “[The TSA would] welcome the opportunity to take a fresh look at how we do background checks,” Justin Oberman, the agency’s assistant director of transportation threat assessment and credentialing, said during questioning at Tuesday’s hearing.

Oberman also said the TSA was amenable to examining whether the list of hazardous materials was “overbroad.”

Tiered Approach

Some members of the trucking industry, including the American Trucking Associations, favor required hazmat background checks for drivers planning to transport dangerous or “security-sensitive” materials, such as high explosives or liquefied natural gas. Truckers hauling shipments of paint would not have to undergo such checks.

But the International Brotherhood of Teamsters does not support a tiered approach to hazmat background checks. Because Teamster drivers carry all kinds of hazmat, from the dangerous to the relatively benign, drawing a distinction between different kinds of shipments would not help, according to Scott Madar, the union’s assistant director of safety and health.

The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators also expressed reservations about drawing distinctions between classes of hazmat.

“All DMVs are concerned that the administrative costs of implementing a new program, focusing on further classification of drivers, would cause an undue burden on an already overwhelmed staff and resources,” Linda Lewis-Pickett, the association’s president and CEO, said in testimony before the committee. Benton Ives-Halperin can be reached at bihalperin@cq.com.