Secretary of Transportation Sean P. Duffy has announced 52 deregulatory actions across the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This deregulatory package will rescind, withdraw, or amend regulations that the DOT said do not enhance safety. In addition, these actions are said to streamline the Code of Federal Regulations by deleting more 73,000 words from the Federal Register.
The U.S. Department of Transportation in a release said that this was, “slashing duplicative and outdated regulations that are unnecessarily burdensome, waste taxpayer dollars, and fail to ensure safety.” And according to Duffy, “These are common sense changes that will help us build a more efficient government that better reflects the needs of the American people.”
These deregulatory actions primarily target redundant and decade-old rules that “have no real-life application.” They cut duplicative provisions at FHWA for construction contracts and axing an outdated rule under FMCSA which requires a paper copy of an Electronic Logging Device’s operator’s manual even when it can be found online. Another FMCSA change would ensure military technicians—who undergo rigorous military driver trainings—are not unfairly burdened by duplicative civilian commercial driver’s license requirements when operating commercial trucks for military purposes.
Other changes include a proposed amendment to use a properly sized crash test dummy in NHTSA’s car seat side impact tests. The proposed amendments will also help car seat manufacturers streamline development and testing to ensure sufficient availability of car seats for children to travel safely.
Of the actions, 43 are at the Notice Proposed Rulemaking stage, seven are final rules, and two are withdrawals of rulemaking actions. All 52 deregulatory actions will increase efficiencies without compromising safety for the American people, the DOT said.
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