EOBR Update

Posted on April 28, 2012 
Filed Under HOURS OF SERVICE, POLITICS

Well, I haven’t posted anything in about a month, once again violating my pledge to keep the blog current. Lucky for you this is free. As I predicted about a month ago, the House passed their own version of the highway bill, without a fancy title, like MAP-21. Apparently, the House version of the bill basically extends the current amount of money being spent for 3 months, approves the Keystone XL pipeline, and nothing else.

The Senate and House have appointed members to negotiate together to create a uniform bill. This is called a Conference Committee. The members appointed are found here:

So now what happens? The Conference Committee will attempt to create a final uniform bill. I am unsure of what rules govern a Conference Committee… probably very few. At any rate, if Committee is able to agree on a uniform bill, then that bill will go to both the House and the Senate for a vote before the full memberships of the House and Senate. If it passes both houses, then it will go to the President for his signature.

Will a final bill be created? Will EOBRs be forced into every truck in America? According to one of the villains in this story, Ray LaHood, “no”. In this interview with Politico, LaHood states a bill will not be passed this year. I hope he’s right, because that would be fantastic.

LaHood further states the highway bill will create jobs because the government spending money on infrastructure creates jobs, etc. etc. Sure it’ll create jobs for some, but it will destroy many more jobs than it creates. Every dollar spent by the Federal government is another dollar we don’t have, and another dollar which has to be either taken from the private sector, or borrowed from future generations. Then, of course, there are the billions in regulatory costs, such as the EOBR mandate. The MAP-21 highway bill is a disaster which should be forgotten.

Will there be a highway bill? I don’t know. The current funding runs out June 30, so they’ll have to do something before then. They may agree they are stalemated, and pass an extension of the current highway funding until after the elections, and let the next Congress take up the issue. This seems to be what LaHood thinks is going to happen, unless he’s simply posturing, which is entirely possible.

I guess this could go two ways. 1) Both sides get together in the spirit of bi-partisanship, and create a bill where the Keystone Pipeline is approved, as well as a bunch of transportation spending, EOBRs, black boxes in your cars, IRS agents keeping you from travelling… ie, all of MAP-21. This would be a bad thing. Getting the Keystone Pipeline in exchange for a whole heaping helping of more government is an exceedingly bad trade.

2) Both sides stick to their guns, no deal is reached, and then let the elections decide the matter. This would be a good thing, and probably the more likely outcome, especially since Obama seems dead-set against this Keystone thing for some reason.

Stay tuned……

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