House Panel to Discuss Changes to Trucking Deregulation Language

The House of Representatives Transportation Subcommittee on Highways and Transit has set May 5 as the date for a hearing to discuss possible changes to a key portion of federal trucking deregulation legislation.

The panel plans to take testimony from proponents and opponents of language in the Federal Aviation Administration Act of 1994, or F4A, that grants federal supremacy on the regulation of "routes, rates, and service" related to interstate trucking and commerce.

Officials from the ports of Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey and Oakland have joined with a group of elected officials, labor organizations, and environmental groups to demand changes to the F4A language that would provide local government authorities with the power to set trucking and commerce regulations.

Opponents, including the trade group representing leaders of the rest of the nation's ports, argue that the changes would create a patchwork of local regulations like that that existed before trucking deregulation.

The challenge to the existing language of the F4A began with Los Angeles officials after the port lost a court injunction battle with the American Trucking Associations over the port's Clean Truck Program. The court, in granting the injunction against portions of the port's truck plan – including a requirement that all port drayage drivers be per-hour employees – cited language from the F4A that states that federal law preempts local law in the case of interstate commerce. The port and the ATA head back to court to argue the entire case on April 20.

Proponents of the F4A language change are pleading their case directly to the chair of the House panel, Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., and asking Oberstar to insert the change into a multi-year "must pass" surface transportation bill currently working through the House. This would eliminate the more difficult task of changing the F4A directly.

Oberstar has yet to weigh in publicly on the proposed F4A changes.

NYC, Newark Mayors Join LA Port in Fight Against Trucking Deregulation

The mayors of the nation’s second largest port complex have joined with Los Angeles and Oakland officials in a lobbying effort to rescind federal deregulation of interstate trucking.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker on Sunday jointly announced their support of the LA port’s Clean Truck Program and called on Congress “to support legislation that will empower ports to implement the LA Clean Truck Program.”

The New York/New Jersey port complex is the second busiest in the nation behind the Long Beach and Los Angeles complex.

Bloomberg and Booker join Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, who last week in calling for changes to the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, or F4A, to allow local governmental authorities, such as port authorities, to regulate interstate trucking. Detractors of the F4A, which provides that the federal government has authority over interstate trucking, refer to the 1994 legislation as “obsolete” and “arcane.”

The F4A states in part, “a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of two or more States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier.”

Portions of the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program required that drayage trucking firms servicing the port hire per-hour employee drivers instead of per-load independent owner-operators who represent more than 80 percent of the LA port drayage drivers. This employee mandate was injuncted by a federal court in part on the basis of the F4A language that gives authority for regulation of interstate trucking to the federal government. Previous legal cases have found that containerized cargo is considered interstate commerce.

The Clean Truck Program, enacted 13-months ago by the adjacent ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, was developed jointly by the two ports but approved in two differing versions. The Long Beach port version had no employee mandate. This week, Long Beach port officials reached a settlement with the American Trucking Associations that is expected to remove the Long Beach port from ongoing litigation over the truck program. The ATA plans to continue legal action against the Los Angeles port.