New Legislation
February 17, 2012
MPMA St. Paul, MN.
Legislative Update #3
From Washington DC..
After first splitting the five year, $260 billion transportation authorization back into three bills in order to move forward on Floor debate, Speaker Boehner decided to postpone the bulk of the debate on the authorization bill since he does not yet have the votes for the entire package. However, the House did pass an offset bill which includes provisions to open ANWR to drilling and to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. Further debate of the bill provisions will resume after next week’s Presidents Day break.
This week, the Obama administration released its proposed $3.80 trillion budget for FY 2013, up from an estimated $3.79 trillion in fiscal 2012.
From St. Paul..
We had a very interesting week at the Capitol…
The drive off bills have been authored and we are expecting to be scheduled in the House Committee on Public Safety and Crime Prevention and Finance this week and the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, the first part of next week. If you want to track these bills the House bill is HF No. 2333 and SF No. 1870. We have good authors and don’t believe we will see an opposition.
Bills in both bodies regarding prohibiting indemnity provisions in motor carrier contracts had Committee hearings. HF. No. 1992 and SF No. 1687 both passed through these Committees with no opposition. The Bill in the Senate will have another look in Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.
The SPILL BILL, HF No. 2163 does not have a companion. The bill is not gaining much traction. We spoke to other business associations and some Ag groups and everyone is in agreement that the bill needs to be vetted by stake holders.
This week two more bills were introduced dealing with biodiesel. HF No. 2296 was authored by Rep. Dill and HF No. 2309 authored by Rep Beard. These bills do not have an exception in them for number 1 during cold weather months. We will be meeting next week with other groups and associations who have a stake in this legislation. We will also meet with Department of Commerce who originally issued the number 1 waiver.
