ATA hails Senate passage of transportation screening modernization act

The Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act has passed the Senate unanimously this week, taking a crucial step closer to becoming law. 

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) thanked Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Jon Tester (D-Montana), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), and Angus King (I-Maine) for introducing the bill and moving it forward in the Senate.

ATA has been at the forefront of the push to pass this bipartisan legislation to eliminate redundant fees and background checks for essential supply chain workers.

“After years of paying the price for an inefficient credentialing system, relief is finally within sight for truck drivers and other essential transportation workers who keep our supply chain running,” ATA President & CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. 

Spear called the Senate’s passage of the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act a “victory for common sense and puts us on the verge of eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the federal government that waste time and money.”

“By streamlining the administration of these important programs, this bipartisan legislation will make it easier and less costly for hardworking Americans to obtain the credentials they need to do their jobs,” Spear added. 

Beginning last year, ATA assembled a group of over 150 organizations representing trucking, rail, energy, organized labor, agriculture, third-party logistics providers and other key supply chain stakeholders in support of the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act. It was written by Reps. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), Adam Smith (D-Washington), Mark Green (R-Tennessee), Michael Guest (R-Mississippi), Salud Carbajal (D-California) and Dina Titus (D-Nevada).

The Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act cuts through red tape to allow workers to apply existing valid background checks to multiple TSA-managed credentialing programs, such as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME) programs. 

By eliminating duplicative screenings and harmonizing these programs, the bill would codify formal recommendations by the Government Accountability Office dating to 2007. 

These recommendations were reaffirmed in 2020 in a comprehensive security assessment conducted by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center.  The bill does not make any modifications to the backend security threat assessment conducted on individual applicants, ensuring that they undergo the same level of review as they do under current law.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, led by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Congressmen Mark Green (R-Tennessee) and Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), previously voted to advance the bill.  It now awaits final passage by the full House.

In another regulatory development, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) submitted to the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking titled Transparency in Property Broker Transactions.

FMCSA proposes revisions to the federal code in response to petitions from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC). 

The proposed provisions of this rule would: 

•  Address the lack of access to information among shippers and motor carriers that can impact the fairness and efficiency of the transportation system.
•  Reframe broker transparency as a regulatory duty imposed on brokers, with the goal of deterring non-compliance.
• Require brokers to provide transaction records to motor carriers and shippers upon request and within 48 hours of that request.  

 It would also require brokers to keep electronic records to make it easier for shippers and motor carriers to review broker records on request. 

Additionally, FMCSA would revise and modernize the required contents of the records to include all payments, fees, and charges related to the transaction.  It also would help ensure shippers and motor carriers can resolve issues and disputes around service or payment in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Broker transparency is intended to enable efficient outcomes in the transportation industry by providing the material information necessary for the transacting parties to make informed business decisions. Broker transparency also supports the efficient resolution of disputes between parties.

“Though the current regulations are meant to provide broker transparency, the Agency believes that broker transparency is rare in practice,” FMCSA said. By reinforcing the regulations, FMCSA said it believes that broker transparency, and its benefits, would become more common.

The full proposed action is available on the FMCSA website and in the Federal Register (Docket No. FMCSA-2023-0257). Public comments are due by Jan. 21, 2025.