The debate continues on the floor of the Senate. As you know there is a Transportation Spending Bill that will be voted on soon, and attached to this bill are many amendments. One of those is the Collins amendment that would roll back safety provisions of a rule issue by the Department of Transportation just last summer. The Collins amendment was worked out in a subcommittee without benefit of public comment or any scientific study, brokered by the trucking industry. Yesterday the Booker (Senator, Democrat, NJ) amendment was introduced on the floor. You can hear Sen Booker’s passionate introduction here. It is sixteen minutes, so I understand if you don’t watch it all. What struck me is his common sense, and how he understands that this is a complicated issue. That a rule that took years to research, held six public comment periods, heard from 100’s of thousands of stakeholders, used the science of experts, should not be rolled back without study in a private subcommittee unseen by anyone. Here’s a short article that talks about the introduction of the Booker amendment.
I’m told the debate over the Booker amendment has been tabled and will continue Monday. I don’t know when the actual vote will happen. Please let your Senators know that you support the Booker amendment. And if your Senator is cosponsoring the amendment, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller, Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, California’s Dianne Feinstein and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, please please call them and say thank you. They will appreciate your support. I believe there were others as well, Senator Booker lists them at the beginning of his speech.
And in case you missed it on YouTube, here’s Whoopi Goldberg’s reaction to this issue.
June 20, 2014 at 8:27 am
I still think computerized driving limiters are the way to go…they use these back home as well as speed inhibitors on trucks…sudy after study has shown that driving sleep impaired is the same as driving drunk.
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June 20, 2014 at 8:40 am
We’re working on that as well. Mandated electronic on board recorders were mandated in an appropriates bill two years ago..and are still being fought.
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June 20, 2014 at 8:33 am
I sent a thank you electronic message to Cory Booker. I’m from NJ and was happy to hear a NJ Senator introduced it.
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June 20, 2014 at 8:40 am
Thank you very much!!
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June 20, 2014 at 10:45 am
Leave it to Whooping! I’m off to send a message to my congressmen now.
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June 20, 2014 at 5:58 pm
thank you Carol, I appreciate it very much.
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June 20, 2014 at 1:03 pm
I called my senators to thank them. Schumer seems to be a big time public safety advocate (he’s helping our city right now to make the oil tankers that fly through our towns safer). Good person to have on your side.
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June 20, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Oil tankers are scary enough without them flying through town.
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June 20, 2014 at 5:58 pm
And yea…we’re excited to have him working with us.
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June 20, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Done, again.
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June 20, 2014 at 5:59 pm
Thank you so much Linda. Sometimes I thnk I’m the only person calling…I know it’s not true but it feels lonely at times.
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June 21, 2014 at 10:59 am
Don’t ever quit, Dawn! I’ve been nearly run right off the highway a couple of times in the last few years by truckers, and I know how frightening it can be. I don’t know (or care) what they’re doing — whether talking on the phone, eating, or just daydreaming — but they shouldn’t be doing stuff like that behind the wheel! And NOBODY ought to be driving exhausted.
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June 22, 2014 at 5:49 am
We won’t give up Debbie even though it’s always an uphill battle.
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