Inside This Issue...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced the establishment of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee as required by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users. The advisory committee will provide advice and recommendations to the FMCSA Administrator on the needs, objectives, plans, approaches, content, and accomplishments of motor carrier safety programs and motor carrier safety regulations. This notice also solicits nominations for interested persons to serve on the advisory committee. The Administrator will appoint up to 20 members to the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee. Nominations for the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee must be received on or before Jan. 4, 2007. For more information, contact FMCSA's Scott Poyer at (202) 366-6408. AAMVA is collecting nominations to represent AAMVA in this committee. Please send recommendations to Keith Kiser or Tim Adams by close of business on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006.

As of Nov. 17, Congress had not yet completed the the fiscal 2007 spending bill for transportation programs, meaning that guaranteed highway funding cannot be paid to states and many large highway projects could be stalled. Highway and transit programs were supposed to see significant increases when fiscal 2007 began on Oct. 1. However, under the transportation reauthorization law (PL 109-59), fiscal 2006 funding levels will remain until the fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury-Housing appropriations bill becomes law. Both versions of the fiscal 2007 bill (HR 5576) include a $3.4 billion increase in federal highway funds over fiscal 2006 levels. The House passed its version June 14 and the Senate version is awaiting floor action. Congress has used continuing resolutions to fund transportation programs at fiscal 2006 levels. The Republican Leadership has announced that the House will reconvene on Tuesday, Dec. 5 with votes occurring as early as 10 am.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposes to amend the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to merge information from the medical certificate into the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) process as required by section 215 of the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (MCSIA). This NPRM would implement section 215 by requiring interstate CDL holders subject to the physical qualification requirements of the FMCSRs to provide a current original or copy of their medical examiner’s certificates to their State Driver Licensing Agency (SDLA). It would also require the SDLA to record on the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) driver record the certification the driver made regarding applicability of 49 CFR part 391, and, for drivers subject to part 391, the medical status information proposed in this NPRM. The driver’s certification as to the applicability of part 391 and the specified medical certification status information would be made available to personnel authorized in 49 CFR part 384 via CDLIS and National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System (NLETS) electronic inquiries, and on the CDLIS motor vehicle record (CDLIS MVR) obtained by employers and drivers. CDL drivers would no longer be required to carry the medical examiner’s certificate, because their certification status would be verified electronically. Comments must be received by Feb. 14, 2007. They may be submitted at http://dms.dot.gov or the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. All submissions must include the Agency name and docket number or Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) for this rulemaking (RIN 2126-AA10).

Registration is now open for the 11^th International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons (TRANSED 2007), to be held in Montreal, Quebec June 18-21, 2007. Held every three years, the TRANSED series of conferences is a key forum for scientific and philosophical advances in the pursuit of mobility and access for all. TRANSED 2007 has received an unprecedented number of abstracts (270) for papers and posters from 38 countries around the world. The preliminary program is currently being finalized and will feature plenary, panel and roundtable sessions and an extensive and dynamic poster session. Currently you can consult the list of accepted abstracts for posters and papers on the Program section of the TRANSED 2007 Web site. The conference will also host an exhibition demonstrating the latest developments in vehicles, equipment, software and systems.

Production on the Winter 2007 issue of MOVE is underway...and we are looking for sources and experts for one of our feature articles. "The True Cost of Temp Tags: Stopping an Alarming Trend" will address how temporary tages can be used for criminal means and how to combat this behavior. If you have any leads, experience or expertise on this topic, please contact Lauren DeAngelis at ldeangelis@aamva.org or (703) 908-5891. We look forward to hearing from you!

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Nicole R. Nason has called for a comprehensive solution to a growing problem--children who are backed over by motor vehicles. The agency has submitted a report to Congress on the effectiveness of various backover avoidance technologies currently available to consumers. NHTSA intends to work with safety advocates to educate parents and other caregivers about the importance of educational programs like "Spot the Tot" while pushing for improvements in video technology that provides drivers with a view behind a motor vehicle. NHTSA will also continue research to analyze the safety problem more thoroughly and better understand the various scenarios under which such incidents occur. Additional research will be aimed at making technology-based countermeasures more effective. View the report on NHTSA's Web site. 

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) is cosponsoring the 4th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design on July 9-12, 2007, in Stevenson, Washington. The symposium will focus on providing an interdisciplinary forum for scientific exchange among users of driving assessment tools, applications, and technology. Attendees are expected to include researchers and practitioners working on applications of driving assessment from the perspective of engineering, psychology, medicine, and public health. For additional information, contact TRB's Richard Pain.

Following a serious near collision of two jumbo aircraft in Chicago last July, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has added two new issue areas to the Most Wanted List. The list calls for action by federal agencies on the most critical transportation safety issues. The new issues include air taxi crew resource management training, and school bus occupant safety. In addition to pinpointing important safety issues, the Most Wanted List also rates agencies by the timeliness with which they act to implement the recommendations. At the recent public meeting, the Federal Aviation Administration received five unacceptable timeliness ratings, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration received two unacceptable timeliness ratings. For more information, see NTSB's Web site.

A Federal Register notice has been published announcing the availability of final guidance on the application of section 6002 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) (Pub. L. 109-59, 119 Stat. 1144) to projects funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), or both. Section 6002 of SAFETEA-LU, which went into effect on Aug. 10, 2005, adds requirements and refinements to the environmental review process for highway and public transportation capital projects. The section 6002 guidance describes how the FTA and FHWA will implement the new requirements within the environmental review process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other Federal laws. The final guidance is available for FTA and FHWA on each of their Web sites. This notice took effect Nov. 15, 2006. For more information, contact FTA's Joseph Ossi at (202) 366-1613 or FHWA's Ruth Rentch at (202) 366-2034.

If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the following surveys.

• Missouri – Sign Language Interpreter Services (Ends 11/27/2006)
• Georgia – Offline Issuance (Ends 11/24/2006)
• Missouri – Safety Data Collection (Ends 11/21/2006)
• Virginia – DMV Queuing Systems (Ends 11/29/2006)
• Oklahoma – Digital License Plate MOU (Ends 11/21/2006)
• Missouri – Laminated Birth Certificates (Ends 11/28/2006)

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced the date, time, location, and agenda for the next meeting of the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. This meeting will be open to the public, with the exception of a one-hour administrative session. The meeting will be held from 8 am to 11:15 am and 12:15 pm to 2:30 pm on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2006, in Miami Beach, Florida. It will be held in the Key Biscayne A room of the Eden Roc Hotel, 4525 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida 33140. Persons wishing to make comments or who are unable to attend or speak at the meeting may submit comments at any time. All submissions received must include the docket number: DHS-2006-0070 and may be submitted via the Federal Rulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov.

There are less than 300 days until the 2007 Annual International Conference in South Dakota. However, the program planning starts now! E-mail your “hot buttons,” leadership concerns and professional development goals by Dec. 15 for consideration on the conference agenda. The conference program planning committee also will be selecting a limited number of presentation ideas from associate member submissions. If you are interested in presenting a topic, serving on a panel, or providing a speaker, submit the Session Proposal Form by Dec. 15, 2006.