Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I thank the chair, ranking member, and all the colleagues who worked so hard on bringing this legislation to the floor.

My amendment is really about improving this bill. It is going to make it a better bill, and it is about making our Nation's roads safer and the delivery of goods more efficient.

There are 15.5 million trucks on the road each year driving more than 93 billion miles annually, carrying over a billion dollars' worth of goods. There is no question that our Nation's trucking industry is a huge economic driver, earning $650 billion annually, 5 percent of the United States GDP.

With all that sunshine comes a little bit of rain. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that in 2013 almost 4,000 people were killed and 95,000 people were injured by large trucks, costing the public a whopping $100 billion annually. So my amendment does three things to increase safety and to reduce those costs.

First, the amendment brings the requirement for commercial truck insurance into the 21st century. It is shocking, Mr. Chair, that the minimum insurance required for commercial trucks has remained the same since the 1980s at $750,000 per incident regardless of the number of victims or their injuries. The FMCSA, which is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, is currently engaged in rulemaking to examine the appropriateness of this standard. The base bill requires studies that I respectfully submit will slow down this process.

Imagine a large truck hitting a bus full of schoolchildren and the insurance only being $750,000 to cover all the losses. Do you want to be the person that tells the parents that Congress needs to do more studies before their medical bills can be paid? My amendment strikes these unnecessary studies so that the FMCSA can finish their important work without delay.

Second, the base bill creates a national hiring standard that brokers and shippers must use to hire carriers. One of these standards is based on outdated information. It is not updated annually. So my amendment at the desk would strengthen the hiring standard by prohibiting the hiring of motor carriers defined as ``high-risk carriers'' by the FMCSA.

Finally, just this year, the FMCSA did a study that found that compliance, safety, and accountability scores accurately predict safety performance by drivers. These scores are currently used by brokers and shippers to identify unsafe carriers. Studies show that, since this system has been used, there has been a 14 percent reduction in serious violations of the law. I want to repeat that. There has been a 14 percent reduction in serious violations of the law.

This base bill requires another study that is going to take 18 months. Not only that, the base bill now hides important safety statistics during this time. What my amendment does is very simple. The provision makes these safety scores transparent for the public to see.

Together, these measures are going to improve the movement of goods across the country by increasing safety and efficiency. It is a real good amendment. I think it is going to make this bill much better, and I urge its adoption.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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