Summary of MAP21

Summary of MAP21

As indicated last week, Congress has passed a transportation bill. The bill, dubbed ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP21), is a fully funded, 27 month bill – running through the end of FY 2014. Congress was also forced to pass another short extension of existing programs (1-week) to allow time for printing and finalizing the bill for the President’s signature later this week. This final extension was merely a technical maneuver and has no substantive policy impacts.

Click here for a section-by-section summary of the relevant portions of the bill. In general, the bill makes significant changes to federal commercial motor vehicle safety policy. The bill creates additional motor carrier registration requirements and works to establish ownership successor standards, to help combat reincarnated/chameleon carriers. The bill also includes many changes to motorcoach safety regulations and directs DOT to conduct a number of studies and rulemakings to improve motorcoach safety.

The bill makes minor changes to the existing MCSAP grant program and authorizes funds for the length of the bill. Funding levels are kept steady, with a slight increase for the New Entrant Grant program. In addition, the MOE requirement for the Border Enforcement Grant program was removed. As we indicated last week, overall MOE was also adjusted, set on a static two-year period – 2004 & 2005 – and providing for exemptions for certain expenditures and waivers for states in some instances.

MAP21 contains several sections aimed at improving data collection and sharing. The bill also strengthens efforts to harmonize standards between the US and Canada. Finally, the bill calls for a study of size and weight policy, including a catalogue of existing exemptions.