Intermodal Transportation Safety Act of 1997

Summary

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Highway Safety Title II: Traffic Safety Title III: Hazardous Materials Transportation Reauthorization Title IV: Comprehensive One-Call Notification Title V: Motor Carrier Safety Title VI: Rail and Mass Transportation Anti-Terrorism and Safety Intermodal Transportation Safety Act of 1997 - Title I: Highway Safety - Amends Federal transportation law to require the Secretary of Transportation to makes grants to States that take specified actions to advance highway safety with respect to: (1) alcohol-impaired driving countermeasures (including a graduated licensing system for drivers under age 21); (2) motor vehicle occupant protection (including safety belts and child passenger protection devices); (3) State highway safety data improvements; and (4) drugged driver countermeasures. (Sec. 102) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into an agreement with an organization representing the interests of the States to manage, administer, and operate the National Driver Register's computer timeshare and user assistance functions. Authorizes the head of a Federal agency that issues motor vehicle operator's licenses to request information about an individual applicant from the chief driver licensing official of a State. (Sec. 103) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 through 2003 for consolidated State highway safety programs and for the National Driver Register. Title II: Traffic Safety - Requires transfer to a State's highway safety programs of increasing specified percentages of the State's apportionments for the national highway system, the surface transportation program, and resurfacing, restoring, rehabilitating, and reconstructing the Interstate System, if the State fails by certain deadlines to enact and have in continuous effect a primary enforcement safety belt use law. (Sec. 202) Authorizes the Secretary to engage in activities that improve worldwide motor vehicle safety through appropriate activities, including: (1) promoting adoption of international and national vehicle standards harmonized with, functionally equivalent to, or compatible with U.S. standards; (2) participating in efforts to foster an international acceptance of globally harmonized and-or functionally equivalent or compatible motor vehicle regulations and standards; (3) promoting international cooperative programs for research, development, demonstration projects, training, and other forms of technology transfer and exchange; and (4) providing technical assistance to other countries relating to their adoption of U.S. vehicle regulations or standards functionally equivalent to U.S. standards. Title III: Hazardous Materials Transportation Reauthorization - Repeals the Secretary's authority to prescribe criteria for handling hazardous material. (Sec. 307) Repeals the mandate of the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to distribute the hazardous materials training curriculum for the public sector. (Sec. 308) Directs the Secretary to: (1) monitor public sector emergency response planning and training for an accident or incident involving hazardous material; and (2) provide technical assistance to a State, local government, or Indian tribe for carrying out such training and planning. Permits the Secretary to authorize a State or Indian tribe receiving a planning and training grant to use up to 25 percent of it to assist small businesses in complying with regulations. (Sec. 312) Authorizes Department of Transportation (DOT) officers, employees, or agents, during an inspection, to: (1) open, examine, sample, and analyze the contents of a package marked or otherwise represented as containing a hazardous material, or about which there is an objectively reasonable and articulable belief that the package may contain such material; and (2) prevent the further transportation of any material when there is an objectively reasonable and articulable belief that an imminent hazard may exist, until the material's hazardous qualities have been determined. Requires inspectors to mark a package found to contain hazardous materials, and notify the shipper before the package may continue in transportation. Directs the Secretary to issue or impose immediate restrictions, prohibitions, recalls, or out-of-service orders, without notice or the opportunity for a hearing, that may be necessary to abate an emergency situation. (Sec. 313) Prescribes criminal penalties for knowing violations of law or regulations governing the transportation of hazardous materials. (Sec. 315) Provides for judicial review of final orders and civil or criminal penalties. (Sec. 316) Directs the Secretary to study the feasibility and desirability of a Federal permit program for high risk hazardous material carriers, including alternative regulatory methods and procedures that may improve the safety of such carriers and shippers. (Sec. 317) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 through 2003. Title IV: Comprehensive One-Call Notification - Comprehensive One-Call Notification Act of 1997 - Provides for the establishment of a State one-call notification program to protect underground facilities from excavation damage. Outlines required elements of the program, including minimum standards and provisions for implementation and enforcement. Authorizes a State to maintain an alternate one-call notification program if it provides protection for public safety, the environment, or excavators that is equivalent to, or greater than, protection under a program that meets the minimum standards of this Act. (Sec. 402) Directs the Secretary of Transportation to study damage prevention practices associated with existing one-call notification systems in order to determine which systems practices appear to be the most effective in preventing damage to underground facilities and in protecting the public, the environment, excavators, and public service disruption. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to assist qualifying States in improving their one-call notification programs. Authorizes appropriations. Title V: Motor Carrier Safety - Provides for performance-based grants to States for: (1) improving motor carrier safety; and (2) enforcing regulations for hazardous materials transportation safety. Requires State plans under such grants to implement performance-based activities by FY 2000. (Sec. 503) Makes 100 percent the Federal share of public education activities with respect to commercial motor vehicle safety programs and enforcement. (Sec. 504) Authorizes appropriations for commercial motor vehicle safety programs for FY 1998 through 2003. (Sec. 505) Authorizes the Secretary to establish motor carrier information systems and data analysis programs to support motor carrier regulatory and enforcement activities. Requires such information systems, in cooperation with the States, to be coordinated into a network providing identification of motor carriers and drivers, registration and licensing tracking, and motor carrier and driver safety performance. Requires the Secretary to develop and maintain data analysis capacity and programs to provide the means: (1) to develop strategies to address safety problems and to use data analysis to measure the effectiveness of these strategies and related programs; (2) to determine the cost effectiveness of State and Federal safety compliance, enforcement programs, and other countermeasures; (3) to evaluate the safety fitness of motor carriers and drivers; (4) to identify and collect necessary data; and (5) to adapt, improve, and incorporate other information and information systems as deemed appropriate by the Secretary. Requires the Secretary to include, as part of the DOT motor carrier safety information network system, a Performance and Registration Information Systems Management information system to serve as a clearinghouse and repository of information related to State registration and licensing of commercial motor vehicles and the safety system of the commercial motor vehicle registrants or the motor carriers operating the vehicles. Authorizes the Secretary to establish a program focusing on improving commercial motor vehicle driver safety. (Sec. 506) Directs the Secretary to carry out a pilot program in cooperation with one or more States to: (1) improve upon the timely exchange of pertinent driver performance and safety records data; and (2) determine to what extent such data, including relevant fines, penalties, and failures to appear for a hearing or trial, should be included as part of any information systems under DOT oversight. (Sec. 507) Requires specified allocations of appropriations for each of FY 1998 through 2003 for activities designed to advance commercial motor vehicle and driver safety, with any obligation, contract, cooperative agreement, or support granted in excess of $100,000 to be awarded on a competitive basis. (Sec. 508) Authorizes FY 1998 through 2003 appropriations for information systems and strategic safety initiatives. Repeals the existing truck and bus accident grant program. (Sec. 511) Repeals the requirement for State submission of commercial motor vehicle safety laws and regulations to the Secretary for review, including the mandate for the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Regulatory Review Panel. Prohibits motor carriers, including passenger and hazardous material carriers, which fail to meet safety fitness requirements from operating in interstate commerce. (Sec. 512) Repeals grant programs for: (1) testing and ensuring the fitness of operators of commercial motor vehicles; and (2) issuing commercial drivers' licenses and complying with State participation requirements. Declares that no action or proceeding for defamation, invasion of privacy, or interference with a contract that is based on the furnishing or use of safety performance records in accordance with regulations issued by the Secretary may be brought against: (1) a motor carrier requesting the safety performance records of an individual under consideration for employment as a commercial motor vehicle driver as required by and in accordance with regulations issued by the Secretary; (2) a person who has complied with such a request; or (3) the agents or insurers of such persons. (Sec. 513) Revises civil penalties for violations of Federal law with respect to commercial motor vehicle safety. (Sec. 514) Repeals the mandate for a working group of State and local government officials with respect to the International Registration Plan and International Fuel Tax Agreement. Repeals the authority for grants to States and appropriate persons to facilitate participation in such Plan and Agreement, as well as the authorization of appropriations for the program. (Sec. 515) Directs the Secretary to conduct studies to determine the location and quantity of parking facilities at commercial truck stops and travel plazas and public rest areas that could be used by motor carriers to comply with Federal hours-of-service rules. (Sec. 518) Revises the Secretary's authority with respect to charter bus transportation. (Sec. 519) Requires the DOT to maintain the level of Federal motor carrier safety investigators as in effect on September 30, 1997, or provide for alternative resources and mechanisms to ensure an equivalent level of commercial motor vehicle safety inspections. (Sec. 520) Directs the Secretary to determine the willingness and ability of any foreign motor carrier that applied to operate in the United States before January 1, 1996, to meet the safety fitness and other regulatory requirements under this title. Requires a related report to specified congressional committees. (Sec. 521) Authorizes the Secretary to establish a Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Committee to give advice on commercial motor vehicle safety regulations and assistance in negotiated rulemaking procedures. (Sec. 522) Authorizes the Secretary to carry out pilot programs to examine innovative approaches or alternatives to existing commercial motor vehicle safety regulations. Title VI: Rail and Mass Transportation Anti-Terrorism and Safety - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit the use of firearms, dangerous weapons, and propelling objects against railroad trains and mass transportation. (Sec. 604) Requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to lead the investigation of all such offenses (including existing offenses under the "Wrecking Trains" statute). (Sec. 605) Requires the Federal Transit Administrator to consult with the Federal Railroad Administrator concerning relevant safety issues in making a mass transportation grant or loan that concerns a railroad subject to the Secretary's railroad safety jurisdiction. (Sec. 606) Changes the frequency with which rail carriers must file accident and incident reports with the Secretary from monthly to periodically.

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Timeline

1. 8 October 1997

   Introduced

   Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce.

   Source: IntroReferral

2. 8 October 1997

   Introduced

   Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10632-10633)

   Source: IntroReferral

3. 8 October 1997

   Introduced

   Introduced in Senate

   Source: IntroReferral

Votes

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Versions

• Introduced in Senate · 8 October 1997 · Official file

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 8 October 1997

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• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 8 October 1997

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 8 October 1997

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Sponsors

• Sen. McCain, John [R-AZ] · R · Sponsor
• · sscm00 · Standing

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