CMV Safety Incentive Bill Introduced
On October 10, Congressman Mike Thompson ((D-CA.) introduced HR 3820, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Advanced Safety Technology Tax Act of 2007. A copy of the bill is attached.
It provides tax incentives for safety system technologies that include vehicle stability systems, lane departure warning systems, collision warning systems and brake stroke monitoring systems installed on certain commercial vehicles, public transit vehicles and school buses.
This type of safety technology incentive is supported by the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mark V. Rosenker, the GAO, and the DOT Inspector General as a significant step that has the potential to reduce heavy truck crashes and fatalities. FMCSA Administrator, John H. Hill, has also supported the idea of incentives as a way of encouraging the use of new safety technologies.
The NTSB Chairman told Senator Patty Murray in a DOT 2008 Appropriations hearing earlier this year that he believed the tax incentive approach would result in more widespread use of this technology by the industry much sooner than going through the usual DOT rulemaking process.
Since HR 3820 is both a safety and a tax bill, the key Committees of jurisdiction in the House are Ways and Means and Transportation and Infrastructure. In the Senate, the Committees on Finance and Commerce, Science, and Transportation will have jurisdiction. The bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate.
CVSA is working with other groups such as the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, and other representatives of the technology manufacturers to gain wider support of the legislation in both the House and Senate.
We will keep you posted on all efforts to try and move this bill along in the Congress.
