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.