HOS highway bill amendment withdrawn

Rep. John Boozman’s (R-AR) hours-of-service (HOS) amendment to the federal highway bill (H.R. 3) now working its way through Congress was withdrawn this afternoon after a 10-minute discussion before the full House. Boozman’s proposal would have allowed truckers to break up on-duty periods with up to two hours of off-duty time.

No further HOS amendments are expected to be brought before the House as it debates provisions to the $283.9-billion highway bill. A Senate committee is expected to vote on its own version of the highway bill by the end of this month.

Congressmen have backed no additional HOS amendments to the highway bill at this time, according to officials of both the House Transportation Committee and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

A proposal had been circulating on Capitol Hill that would end a court-ordered re-examination of HOS by making the current rules law.