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The legislative trigger attached to the Department of Transportation’s spending bill for the new fiscal year is about to be pulled, and the target is the Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety.

If President Clinton signs the $50 billion spending bill, as he is expected to do, he will cut off funding for motor carrier safety programs as long as they are under the Federal Highway Administration. While federal inspectors will be able to conduct compliance reviews, they will not be able to levy fines or civil penalties. As Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) phrased it so aptly last week, “This is akin to sending police out on the streets unarmed.”

At a time when trucking and government are working effectively together to reduce accidents and fatalities on the nation’s highways, any disruption of these activities would be wrong.

The current crisis is the result of good intentions gone awry.

In May, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) added language in the appropriations bill to curtail funding as way of putting power behind his drive to wrest the truck and bus safety office from FHWA. Lawmakers kept the trigger in the backs of their minds as they worked through the summer on legislation to improve motor carrier safety. Unfortunately, they did not move quickly enough.

As of last week, the House Transportation Committee had approved legislation for a federal agency devoted solely to truck and bus safety and the Senate Commerce Committee was considering a similar measure. But time has all but run out.

Wolf has achieved his goal of keeping attention focused on the critical issue of motor carrier safety. Unfortunately, his trigger will compromise safety by preventing the government from taking effective action against bad carriers until the issue is resolved. While trucking has a good safety record, strong enforcement of regulations is a vital tool to keep irresponsible carriers and drivers off the road.

Congress should act quickly to rectify this situation by swiftly passing legislation that sets a motor carrier administration on its own two feet within the DOT house. The fact that this issue received scant attention until it assumed crisis proportions shows the need for a federal agency whose attention is focused solely on motor carrier safety.