Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Wednesday approved a bill that would allow states flexibility in how they spend Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) grant funds.
The bill is a response to issue brought up by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Roger Wicker (RMS), chair of the committee, said the bill would give states the ability to use grant money still, even though commercial motor vehicle enforcement efforts may have changed.
“States should have the ability to reassign their roadside inspectors to critical COVID-19 response tasks,” Wicker said. “This bipartisan bill would give states flexibility while efforts are focused on combating the pandemic so that they do not needlessly lose critical highway safety funding during this uncertain time.”
The bill would give states an extra year to spend funds from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, the Commercial Driver License Program Implementation and the High Priority grants program awarded in 2019 and 2020. Additionally, it would authorize FMCSA to keep and redistribute any unallocated funds at the end of the grant period for fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2020.
“Many state commercial motor vehicle enforcement agencies have had to adjust their operations to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected their ability to apply for and utilize federal grants,” said Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NB), chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Safety. “Our legislation would ensure our commercial motor vehicle enforcement agencies around the country have more time and flexibility to use federal dollars already allocated to them as they work to keep Americans safe on the road.”