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July 26, 1999 4:33 PM, EDT

The staff of the powerful House Transportation Committee is circulating a rough draft of a proposal to create a separate motor carrier administration within the Department of Transportation.

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(Note: To return to this story, click the "Back" button on your browser.)Still in its early stages, the proposal calls for a National Motor Carrier Administration headed by an administrator appointed by the president. This would take trucking out of the Federal Highway Administration and set up its own agency, while FHWA would retain its highway safety responsibilities. Trucking and highway safety matters are now housed together under FHWA’s Office of Motor Carrier and Highway Safety, headed by Julie Cirillo.

Committee spokesman Scott Brenner would not provide details of the proposal, other than to say it would likely include a provision designed to prevent truckers with bad driving records from keeping their commercial driver license.

Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and Ground Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Tom Petri (R-Wis.) have been working on improving the CDL program since the May 15 collision between an Amtrak train and a truck driver operating on a probationary license (3-29, p. 1).

No time frame has been set for the bill to be introduced, nor is there any certainty it will ever see the light of day.

The fact that a draft is circulating indicates continued interest in truck safety on the part of the key committee, which has held four hearings since February on truck and bus safety, most recently on May 26.

For the full story, see the July 26 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.