Good morning, Chairman Shelby, Ranking Member Murray, and Senators. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss plans for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in FY 2004. The ongoing support provided by this Committee has enabled FMCSA to make significant progress on several safety fronts, including increased safety enforcement and compliance, as well as enhanced border safety operations. Though we have seen fatalities in crashes involving trucks reduced for four years in a row, clearly there is more that needs to be done. My commitment is to improve commercial motor vehicle safety by bringing greater efficiency and effectiveness to FMCSA’s programs and activities as reflected in the Administration’s FY 2004 budget submission, and as envisioned by Congress when the agency was created. This budget is consistent with the goals and programs established in the Administration’s reauthorization proposal, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2003 (SAFETEA), released on May 14. The Department recognizes that a collaborative effort among agencies is needed to significantly reduce the fatality rate on our nation’s highways. The DOT highway safety goal is to reduce the fatality rate by 41 percent by 2008. This equates to a rate of one fatality per 100 million vehicle-miles-traveled. To achieve the DOT goal, FMCSA, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration, set goals within their respective programs to contribute to meeting the Department-wide target. FMCSA’s targeted contribution to the DOT goal is set at a rate of 1.65 commercial vehicle crash fatalities per 100 million miles of truck travel by 2008. Achieving our goal will be a particular challenge, as commercial vehicle miles of travel have been growing at a faster rate than passenger car miles of travel. On average, over the past 15 years, truck and bus travel has increased by 3.4 percent annually while passenger car travel increases have been running at 2.8 percent. This trend is projected to continue.
I believe that our success will be driven by how well we target our resources at safety problems. To do this effectively, we must use the multiple data sources available to us. FMCSA is a data-driven, performance-based organization. This makes the timely collection of complete data a critical goal for us. Our programs and activities will be focused on reliable and timely data upon which to base our policy and programmatic decision-making and allocation of our operational resources. Our performance-based approach will enable us to accomplish three critical objectives:
1) achieve dramatic improvements in commercial motor vehicle safety; 2) ensure that resources are directed toward activities with the potential for the greatest safety impact; and 3) develop information that demonstrates the value of the government’s investment in safety. FMCSA’s FY 2004 budget request has been structured to strengthen the linkage between resources and accomplishment of these objectives. We have integrated our budget and performance information, framed around the achievement of objectives in several critical areas.
NEW ENTRANT PROGRAM
Let me begin by outlining a critical area for investment, FMCSA’s New Entrant Program. As Congress set out in the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999, a new entrant program to bring motor carriers into compliance with safety regulations at the onset of operations can improve safety. These new entrants, numbering 40,000-50,000 annually, represent a significant commercial motor vehicle safety risk. Our FY 2004 budget request includes resources for a Federal-State partnership effort to implement the New Entrant Program.
Overseeing and supporting the conduct of safety audits, establishing baseline data, and implementing a program of regular data collection to assess the progress of the New Entrant Program will enable FMCSA to fulfill the statutory mandate to improve new entrant safety performance. This program will also meet the requirements set out in Section 350 of the FY 2002 DOT Appropriations Act as a precondition to opening the Southern border to Mexican commercial vehicles. We know already that 46 States will work with us, in full or in part, to conduct new entrant safety audits. These States have agreed to provide approximately 195 of the estimated 262 State and Federal personnel needed to audit the 40,000 to 50,000 new entrants per year. The State personnel will be either new hires or be reassigned from other law enforcement duties. In FY 2003, these individuals are supported through Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grant funds. Contracted safety auditors will be used to make up the balance of staff needed. We also plan to hire 32 full-time Federal staff to cover program oversight, including management, review, and approval of the safety audits. We believe this Federal-State partnership will yield significant results by placing funds in the hands of those closest to the new entrant population, while maintaining appropriate Federal support and oversight.
HAZMAT SAFETY AND SECURITY
Another area where resources are needed is in the transportation of hazardous materials. Each day, there are more than 800,000 shipments of HAZMAT in the United States, 94 percent of which move by highway. We have established a goal of a 20 percent reduction in truck-related hazardous materials incidents by 2010, as measured from the baseline of 2000. We plan to accomplish this through targeted enforcement and compliance efforts.
First, our request includes funds for a HAZMAT permitting program for certain carriers of extremely hazardous materials, as required by Congress. This program will ensure that carriers of these dangerous materials have implemented safety and security measures. FMCSA anticipates issuing 2,700 HAZMAT permits in FY 2004. Second, a program to enhance commercial motor vehicle safety and security at the northern border is being proposed. In partnership with the States, we propose to expand current inspection efforts at the northern border with an emphasis on conducting additional roadside inspections at or near the more remote border crossings. The highest priority will be given to inspecting commercial motor vehicles transporting HAZMAT, with emphasis on driver license checks and vehicle screening for explosives. It is anticipated that 200,000 HAZMAT vehicle inspections will be performed at the northern border in 2004 by the State inspectors hired under this program.
Third, FMCSA will continue its base program of hazardous materials regulatory compliance and outreach and education. For example, responding to the events of September 11, FMCSA contacted nearly 42,000 hazardous materials carriers and conducted nearly 31,000 Security Sensitivity Visits. FMCSA has since launched a program of “Security Contact Reviews” to maintain a high level of vigilance within the industry. Funds requested will enable FMCSA to integrate Security Sensitivity Visits into compliance review activities conducted by our field offices.
SOUTHERN BORDER ENFORCEMENT
Southern Border safety activities remain a high priority for FMCSA. In the FY 2002 Appropriations Act, Congress established requirements for opening the U.S.-Mexico border to long-haul commercial traffic. One of these requirements was that the DOT Inspector General must verify that all statutory conditions have been satisfied. As DOT Inspector General Ken Mead reported in March, FMCSA has met these requirements, including the hiring and training of enforcement personnel and the establishment of inspection facilities and safety procedures at the southern border. Because of our actions, Secretary Mineta was able to certify that the Department had met the requirements of Section 350 providing a basis for the President to lift the moratorium on granting operating authority for Mexican carriers to operate within the interior of the United States. Currently, the border remains closed due to the 9th Circuit Court ruling that DOT had not conducted the appropriate, in-depth environmental analysis for certain rules designed to satisfy the Congressional requirements. The Court held that the environmental assessment that the agency prepared was inadequate, and that FMCSA should have prepared an Environmental Impact Assessment and Clean Air Act Conformity Analysis. The Administration filed an en banc appeal of the decision to the 9th Circuit on March 10, which was denied. The Administration is considering appropriate next steps in responding to the ruling. Meanwhile, FMCSA is ready now, and will be ready whenever the Border is opened, to ensure the safety of border operations. At present, border inspectors and auditors are conducting inspections and safety audits on commercial zone carriers. Border safety investigators are assisting other FMCSA staff in conducting compliance reviews to maintain their skills, as well as conducting compliance reviews on commercial zone carriers. Additionally, border safety investigators have been deployed to do additional inspections at the border.
COMMERICIAL DRIVERS LICENSE (CDL) GRANTS
Improving the accuracy and completeness of driver history records is key to enhanced safety. The driver’s license is the main form of personal identification in the United States. Ensuring positive identification license holders is dependant upon a diverse set of security technologies. Particularly in the transport of hazardous materials, States need current driver licensing technology for security purposes. Grants under this program will allow States to enhance this technology. We are proposing increased CDL grant funding in FY 2004 to accomplish: 1) improving State control and oversight of State licensing agency and third party testing facilities; 2) developing management control practices to detect and prevent fraudulent testing and licensing activities; 3) supporting State efforts to conduct Social Security Number and Immigration and Naturalization Service number verification for CDLs; and 4) maintaining the central depository of Mexican and Canadian driver convictions in the U.S., the disqualification of unsafe Mexican and Canadian drivers, and the notification of Mexican and Canadian authorities of convictions and/or disqualifications. Together, these activities will add to the variety of driver’s license technologies for safety and security, as well as enhancing our ability to identify problem drivers.
HOUSEHOLD GOODS ENFORCEMENT
I am sure that the Chairman and Senators of this Subcommittee, as well as your Senate colleagues, have noticed an increase in the number of constituent complaints regarding unscrupulous household goods carriers. The letters we receive, as well as the calls coming into the FMCSA hotline, have been increasing. FMCSA receives thousands of consumer complaints annually. Currently, the Agency has three full-time commercial investigators devoted to the Household Goods Enforcement and Compliance program and has budgeted for more in FY 2004 to expand enforcement of the Federal Motor Carrier Commercial Regulations.
While the household moving industry as a whole performs over a million successful moves annually, a small group of unscrupulous people scattered over a handful of States has used this industry to defraud unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money. The complaints from the American moving public have reached significant proportions. FMCSA has gathered data to define how, when, and where to focus a limited number of requested resources to inoculate the public against these predators.
These resources will establish a more visible enforcement program through increased investigations, and a more robust outreach effort to reduce the number of consumer complaints filed against household goods carriers and brokers. Our efforts will also be aimed at increasing consumer awareness to allow the public to make better-informed decisions before they move across State lines.
FMCSA also proposes to conduct an extensive study of existing Household Goods Dispute Settlement Programs and alternative arbitration programs in the household goods moving industry. We need this critical information to determine the extent of the challenge, to determine effective strategies and countermeasures, and to evaluate the effectiveness of these programs in resolving loss and damage disputes and claims between shippers and carriers. Household goods carriers operating in interstate commerce are required to have or participate in an arbitration program as a condition of their registration with FMCSA. The arbitration programs must comply with the requirements of 49 U.S.C. 14708, and the carrier must submit to binding arbitration upon a shipper’s request for cargo damage or loss claims of $5,000 or less. Seventy-five percent of the complaints we receive pertain to loss and damage claims. FMCSA believes this study is necessary to determine what changes are needed to assist the moving industry in establishing effective arbitration programs to resolve loss and damage disputes. Currently, FMCSA does not have adequate data or records to evaluate effectively the arbitration programs in the moving industry. We are hopeful that this study will provide a future roadmap to better address household goods complaints.
REGULATORY DEVELOPMENT
Regulatory Development is the cornerstone of FMCSA’s compliance and enforcement process. This is an area where greater attention and resources are needed to promulgate all mandated regulations to ensure program performance will not be compromised. For this reason, we are proposing to dedicate funds to our regulatory development program and have already implemented a defined operating procedure to further accelerate our efforts.
I recently issued a directive to the agency establishing a revised process by which our agency will develop regulations. This directive is modeled on the procedures used in other Federal agencies. It promotes staff collaboration, establishes early regulatory evaluation and analysis, while setting out clear milestones. The new process is designed to improve both the quality and timeliness of our rulemakings. It is team-based and designed to build agency consensus through early involvement by senior managers. Staff has been instructed that all FMCSA rulemakings should immediately begin to follow the new procedures set forth in the order.
The new process is already being put to use as FMCSA responds to a Writ of Mandamus. As you may know, on November 26, 2002, the DOT Secretary and FMCSA were served with a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus for Relief from Unlawfully Withheld Agency Action. Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT), Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), and Public Citizen filed the Petition. The Petition seeks a court order directing DOT to promulgate six regulations. In February 2003, the FMCSA, through a settlement agreement, committed to a timetable for completing these rules (referred to as the Mandamus rules). The Hours-of-Service rule was among them. FMCSA published the Final Rule on Hours-of-Service in the Federal Register on April 28, 2003. The effective date is June 27, 2003, with a compliance date of January 4, 2004. This time period is needed to train 8,000 enforcement officers, update FMCSA computer systems and manuals, and to educate the industry.
MEDICAL PROGRAMS
We will use our funds to examine alternative regulatory programs. Congress provided FMCSA with authority to establish exemption and pilot programs under strict safety controls. We now operate a vision exemption program where applications total more than 60 per month. We are approached routinely to consider other alternative programs to our safety regulations. These resource intensive programs require a consistent funding stream to operate successfully with ample oversight and over multiple years. Among the projected uses for regulatory development funding are the establishment of a medical review board and the creation of a national medical examiner registry. The medical review board will provide expert medical opinion and advice to the agency as we update our medical qualifications requirements. Expert medical advice will help us to supplement the experience of our staff and enhance our medical program. The medical examiner registry will permit FMCSA to provide more comprehensive information on medical practitioners to drivers and carriers. It will also help disseminate information to physicians regarding medical policies and requirements relevant to the physical qualifications of commercial drivers. This is an essential step to upgrade the quality of CDL driver medical qualification exams. With the registry, we will be able to better monitor the quality and practices of medical examiners. A certification process will ensure that medical examiners are qualified to perform driver physical exams. Establishment of a medical registry would respond to the National Transportation Safety Board, which issued eight safety recommendations in September 2001 requesting that FMCSA establish more comprehensive standards for qualifying medical providers and conducting medical qualification exams.
ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Finally, I would like to speak to FMCSA’s organizational capacity. Many lessons have been learned during these first three formative years. The agency has experienced the traditional growing pains of a new organization, but has also had to grapple with some nontraditional ones as well. The rapid rate at which new programmatic and management responsibilities came to the agency could not have been predicted. These new activities, like the opening of the U.S.-Mexico border and Security Sensitivity Visits, exacted a toll on both FMCSA and FHWA’s administrative capacities. Each agency was inundated with ever-increasing workloads and heightened performance expectations. The agency now finds itself at a critical juncture in its organizational development. It is poised to meet the challenges of the President’s Management Agenda through human capital management, improved financial performance, competitive sourcing, performance based budgeting, and E-government. However, the agency’s administrative and information technology infrastructures are in need of additional resources to support its workload and continue to focus on improved safety performance. Our request in FY 2004 will enable FMCSA to procure the necessary administrative and information technology resources at competitive market rates.
CONCLUSION
Thank you Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Murray, and Senators of the Subcommittee for this opportunity to present my plans for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. I believe that your continued investment in the agency will be rewarded by improved data collection, reporting, analysis, and most importantly, higher levels of safety on our Nation’s highways. I look forward to working with you to achieve our mutual goals and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
