The congressional Democrats are now weary of a new trucking provision in the House aviation bill. This new rule threatens the approval of the law that handles the Federal Aviation Administration.
This new provision tackles the issues of rest breaks for truckers as part of the FAA bill which is aimed to shift air-traffic control from FAA to a non-profit group. According to Rep. Peter DeFazio, a ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the new reform bill was very controversial. This would prevent states from passing laws that require companies to set a meal and rest breaks for their drivers or to pay them by the hour, as reported by Transport Topics.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is also against the new bill, is trying to remove the provision from the highway bill congress which was approved during the fall. She said that if this bill will push through, twenty states and territories in Guam and Puerto Rico will be affected as they already have rules for meal and rest breaks for truckers.
Boxer added that it is a terrible, anti-safety, anti-worker provision which she considered a poison pill and should not have a place in the FAA bill. According to The Hill, Boxer also expressed that if someone told her to cut off her employees pay whenever they take meal or bathroom breaks, then she would certainly think that it's outrageous.
According to USA Today, Rep. Grace Napolitano is against the new provision as well. She proposed to strip the new provision out of the FAA bill but lost to a 27-31 vote. She said that states should be allowed to set meals and rest breaks standards as it is seen as fit and healthy for workers.
But according to the lawyer for the American Trucking Association, Richard Pianka, the new provision should not be dealt as controversial. It simply restores the policy which was set by the congress during the 1994 FAA law. This would also be good to establish national uniformity which is essential for efficiency and safety. Pianka added that if this rest and meal breaks will be added then it will stretch out the working hours of the truckers making it stressful and will add to the overall fatigue that these drivers are experiencing.
The schedule to when the senate debate will be conducted is still unclear. Boxer, however, already wrote to some colleagues in the senate to remove the bill in the final version of the legislation.
