Hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Fischer, Hearing on T.F. Scott Darling, III to be the Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

Hearing

Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to this Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing. It is an honor to chair this committee's first hearing of the new year, and I'd like to thank Chairman Thune and the members of the Commerce Committee for this opportunity.

The purpose of today's hearing is to consider the nomination of Mr. T.F. Scott Darling III to serve as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

After serving as the FMCSA's chief counsel for three years, Mr. Darling was nominated for this position by President Obama on August 5, 2015. Mr. Darling is from Boston, where he earned his law degree from Suffolk University and worked at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Congress established the FMCSA in 2000. As I have stated previously, the FMCSA is an important agency within the Department of Transportation, tasked with a critical mission of ensuring the safety of commercial vehicles on our nation's highways.

Unfortunately, some of the FMCSA's actions over the past several years have challenged our shared goal of enhancing highway safety.

In 2014, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated the methodology behind the FMCSA's Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (CSA) program. The GAO found that inaccurate CSA scores, which are publically available online, have cost companies contracts and raised insurance rates. All of this has occurred without a clear correlation to increasing highway safety. For example, as I previously mentioned before this committee, a bridge in Ohio collapsed onto a commercial truck in 2014. Under the CSA program, this negatively affected the carrier's safety score. Yet, it's clear that this incident was not the fault of the commercial driver.

When confronted with these findings, the FMCSA completely disregarded the GAO's recommendations. To address flaws in CSA implementation, major stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, requested that the FMCSA remove CSA scores from public view.

As chairman of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee, I was pleased to play a strong role in drafting, negotiating, and supporting the final highway bill that the Senate passed in December -- known as the FAST Act.

I worked closely with this committee to include key reforms to the FMCSA's regulatory process in the FAST Act. These reforms ensure the agency will conduct a more robust cost-benefit analysis, review outdated guidance, and encourage more transparency and public participation in the rule-making process. I am eager to see these reforms implemented to increase confidence in the FMCSA's rulemaking process moving forward.

In addition, the FAST Act includes a pilot program that I advocated for. This program offers our nation's veterans the opportunity to begin a career as a commercial driving professional at an earlier age. I firmly believe this common-sense program can help begin addressing our nation's severe driver shortage. At the same time, the pilot program will also provide more career opportunities for veterans who already hold a commercial driver's license as a result of their time in the military.

The highway bill also included provisions to address flaws in the CSA program. It does so by requiring the FMCSA to remove inaccurate safety scores for commercial carriers, address and certify that the program's methodology is sound, and provide carriers with options to appeal crash-related data. The CSA program's reforms will help address at-fault crashes that are inaccurately assigned to carriers.

I want to commend the FMCSA for immediately taking the flawed CSA scores down from public view as soon as the president signed the FAST Act into law.

Just this past week, the FMCSA issued a notice of proposed rule-making for its Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) rule, which will change the way carriers are rated for operating. Previously, the FMCSA divided carriers into three tiers: "satisfactory," "conditional," and "unsatisfactory." Under the SFD rule, the FMCSA will now designate carriers as either "fit" or "unfit" to operate by utilizing inspections, crash reporting data, and investigation results. This will help increase inspections and the enforcement of safety regulations. Some, however, have expressed concerns regarding the FMCSA's use of potentially flawed CSA data as part of a carrier's safety fitness determination methodology. Certain stakeholders have argued, inaccurate data could lead to rating unfit carriers as qualified to operate, or vice versa.

I look forward to hearing how the FMCSA will address concerns with the SFD proposed rule.

Again, thank you for being here today. I would now like to invite Senator Booker, who is serving as today's ranking member, to offer his opening remarks.

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