Today, the American Bus Association echoes both the Senate and House of Representatives Appropriations Committees’ concern over the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) recent notice to revise lease and interchange rules.
On June 16, FMCSA published a notice proposing a response to the motorcoach industry petitions requesting FMCSA to revise the lease and interchange rule. This notice caused confusion in the motorcoach industry because it was not labeled a "notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM)" and did not include regulatory language on which the industry could comment on.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives Appropriations Committees included language in their respective Department of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill reports calling on FMCSA to address concerns over the lease and interchange rules.
“Our industry strongly supports efforts to ensure safety for our more than 600 million annual passengers,” said ABA President & CEO Peter Pantuso. “While we absolutely support the need to remove ‘bad actors’ from our nation’s roads, we should not penalize good, compliant carriers with unnecessary, ineffective leasing requirements. We appreciate the FMCSA for taking steps to make certain they get this rule right, but urge the agency to ensure our members and the industry as a whole have a voice in the process. We want to help FMCSA, but confusing and nonspecific notices do not allow our members to respond thoroughly.”
ABA applauds the Senate and House of Representatives Appropriations Committees for bringing attention to the issue of lease and interchange rules in their report language and urges FMCSA to issue a modified NPRM clarifying the June 16 notice and extending the time the public may respond.