Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I oppose this amendment. As is frequently the case in Washington, D.C., the proposed rules requiring truckers to increase their liability insurance is a solution in search of a problem. The provision currently included in the bill must remain. It must remain because it protects job creators so they can stay in business. When you consider that 99.9 percent of crashes are already covered by existing insurance requirements, you can see that increasing insurance and, thus, costs at the expense of jobs is just not a credible solution.

Safety is important. We all know that. We all want to make sure that our roadways are safe. But the Department of Transportation readily admits that raising the cost does not necessarily improve safety. The DOT's own study expresses a crippling revelation to proponents of a cost increase on our job creators. There may be more effective ways that reduce crashes at a lower cost.

Bottom line, we need to strike a balance. If the proposed regulations went into effect, our smaller trucking companies in Iowa and other rural areas in States around the country would be unable to absorb the increased costs, and it could threaten their ability to stay in business. Too frequently in this town we are working to fix the mistakes that were made by so-called Washington solutions. I strongly encourage the rejection of this amendment tonight.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source