On Monday, a coalition of supply chain organizations including the American Trucking Association, asked Congress to pass legislation to reform the credentialing system for frontline transportation workers.
In a letter to the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, the ATA and more than 150 other organizations representing trucking, rail, energy, organized labor, agriculture and logistics providers among others, urged law makers to pass the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act that would eliminate waste and inefficiencies in the country’s transportation worker credentialing system.
“There is no more effective way to thank truck drivers than by taking action to make their difficult jobs a little easier. It is fitting that immediately following National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, members of the House Homeland Security Committee will have the opportunity to pass legislation to respect truckers’ time and money,” ATA President & CEO Chris Spear said. “ATA has marshaled over 150 supply chain organizations in support of the Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act because it reforms the outdated, inefficient and costly bureaucratic system that forces essential workers to pay duplicative fees and undergo duplicative background checks to obtain the credentials they need to do their jobs. We applaud the Members of Congress who authored this bipartisan bill to support the hardworking men and women who keep our economy running, and we appreciate the leadership of Representatives Green and Thompson who are working to move this commonsense bill through their committee.”
The committee is scheduled to markup the bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Garret Graves (R-LA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Mark Green (R-TN), Michael Guest (R-MS), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), and Dina Titus (D-NV) this week. The legislation would allow workers to apply existing valid background checks to multiple TSA-managed credentialing programs like the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) and Hazardous Materials Endorsement (HME) programs. That would reduce redundancies and create a more efficient system, officials said.
The bill was previously approved by the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation.