Senate approves Fischer amendment giving livestock haulers a year’s relief from federal rules

The U.S. Senate approved an amendment authored by U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) that would benefit commercial livestock carriers and her home state’s agriculture economy as part of the larger Interior, Environment, Financial Services, and General Government Appropriations Act of 2019.

H.R. 6147, part of the minibus appropriations bill that recently passed the U.S. Senate, includes Senate Amendment 3669, which Sen. Fischer proposed on July 31 to prohibit the use of funds to carry out requirements relating to electronic logging devices (ELDs), according to the congressional record summary.

“Nebraskans who transport livestock face unique challenges,” Sen. Fischer said, praising Senate approval of S. Amdt. 3669, which if enacted as part of H.R. 6147, would delay ELD requirements for livestock haulers for one year.

“With this extension, we will have more time to bring common sense to these rules and provide additional flexibility,” said the senator, who serves on the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The livestock industry is vital to the agriculture industry and the economy in Nebraska, which ranks first nationwide for cattle on feed, second in total number of cattle and calves, and sixth in hog production, according to an Aug. 1 statement from Sen. Fischer’s office. Moving livestock via commercial truckers is an important component of the industry.

In August 2017, Sen. Fischer first relayed her concerns about the inflexibility of hours-of-service requirements to U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and met to advocate more flexibility in hours-of-service with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which issues regulations and governs the working hours of commercial motor vehicle operators in the United States.

This year, FMCSA in March granted a limited 90-day waiver from the federal hours-of-service regulations related to ELDs for the transportation of agricultural commodities, saying the waiver would give the agency additional time to complete review of the public responses to its Dec. 20, 2017 notice of proposed regulatory guidance to clarify the applicability of the “Agricultural commodity” exception to the hours-of-service regulations. The FMCSA was working toward issuing final guidance, “which in turn, would have an impact on which drivers transporting agricultural commodities are required to use ELDs,” according to the agency.

That guidance was issued in June by the FMCSA giving truckers, including livestock haulers, some flexibility in hours-of-service, according to the senator’s statement, which noted that Sen. Fischer plans to continue working on further flexibility.

The senator teamed up with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) to include S. Amdt. 3669 in the minibus spending bill, which the Senate passed on Aug. 1 with a vote of 92-6, according to the statement.