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CAPITOL RECAP
FMCSA’s Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse program is designed
to improve road safety by identifying drivers who are barred
from driving commercial vehicles due to drug violations.
• Drivers who respond to employer consent requests or would like to
view their clearinghouse record when applying for a job; and
• Substance-abuse professionals who report on the completion of
driver initial assessments and driver eligibility for return-to-duty testing
for violations committed on or after Jan. 6, 2020.
There is no cost for registration. Commercial drivers are not required
to immediately register for the clearinghouse but will need to register to
respond to an employer’s request for consent prior to a pre-employment
query or other full query being conducted. In addition, employers must be
registered during the first year of implementation to ensure they are able
to conduct the required annual query on all employed drivers.
Combatting drug abuse has been a top priority of the U.S. Department
of Transportation and the Trump Administration. President Trump has
brought attention to the nation’s opioid crisis by declaring it a nationwide
public health emergency and has implemented critical federal initiatives
to help reduce opioid abuse.
For information about FMCSA’s clearinghouse program, including
user brochures and instructional aids with step-by-step registration
instructions, visit clearinghouse.fmcsa.dot.gov.
$1 TRILLION PROPOSED FOR
INFRASTRUCTURE BUDGET
The 138-page proposed fiscal-year 2021 budget issued by President
Donald Trump’s Administration earlier this year proposes to reauthorize
surface transportation funding to the tune of $810 billion over the next
decade, along with an additional one-time payment of $190 billion to
support a broad mixture of “infrastructure investments” across a range
of industrial sectors.
That would add up to more than $1 trillion in direct federal
transportation and infrastructure funding between 2021 and 2030. This
represents a “distinct departure” from the Administration’s 2018 outline,
which sought to leverage $200 billion of direct federal funding into
$1 trillion in overall investment with state/local and private contributions,
according to an article in the Journal, the official publication of the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO).
In a related development, published reports said the Trump
Administration proposed cutting billions in discretionary spending in
next year’s Department of Transportation (DOT) budget, while also
calling for broad increases in spending throughout the next decade, a
disconnect that left some in Congress and outside groups struggling to
interpret the Administration’s intentions.
As for the infrastructure proposal, the DOT said with the expiration of
the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in September,
the time to take bold action to address these and other challenges is now.
“Building on the foundation provided in the FAST Act, the
Administration’s funding proposal would largely grow by almost 4%
annually through fiscal year [FY] 2030 … that will provide states and
other entities with dependable and predictable funding for an entire
decade,” a DOT spokesperson said.
Near term, that translates into an $89 billion budget request for DOT
FY 2021 funding — a nearly 2% increase above FY 2020 appropriations,
of which $64 billion would come via the Highway Trust Fund (HTF).
The Administration noted, however, that its request for $21.6 billion in
discretionary transportation budget authority for FY 2021 is a $3.2 billion,
or 13%, decrease from what was enacted for FY 2020.
An analysis of the budget proposal by AASHTO policy staff noted
that such fiscal proposals by the White House represent “the traditional
first step” in budget negotiations with Congress toward final FY 2021
appropriations measures.
The proposed DOT FY 2021 budget cuts discretionary spending
by 13%, including deep reductions in spending on Amtrak and airport
grants. It also cuts more than $2 billion in highway infrastructure funds.
DOT’s Acting Undersecretary Joel Szabat pointed to the deep shortfall
in the HTF, which covers road and transit projects nationwide.
The HTF’s main source of revenue, the gas tax, has failed to keep up
with inflation or national needs.
As it always has been, the argument over whether to raise the gas tax to
replenish the HTF remains a major sticking point in the discussion about
how to fund any infrastructure plan.
Tolls and a vehicle-miles-traveled tax are other funding options that
have been discussed within the circle of transportation stakeholders.
“We estimate that there’s $261 billion in additional Highway Trust
Fund cash that’s required to support the Administration’s proposal over
10 years,” shared Szabat.
The $1 trillion infrastructure-improvement plan presented by
President Donald Trump would rely entirely on federal funding
with no tax increases.
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