Inside This Issue...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has announced the awarding of a grant aimed at improving highway safety involving commercial vehicles. The grant, awarded to AAMVA, focuses on reducing fatalities in work zones, increasing enforcement in rural areas, and recognizing individuals or agencies that have succeeded in improving highway safety in commercial vehicles. The grant creates, educates and promotes awards to those entities who achieve specific goals of improving highway safety. The program includes the presentation of the awards at AAMVA’s Annual International Conference and recognition of those awards in appropriate national publications. Visit the AAMVA Law Enforcement Web site for more information. Download a copy of the nomination form and criteria here.

New Brunswick has issued a request for information (RFI) for "Improving the Motor Vehicle Program in New Brunswick." The objective of the RFI is to obtain information from vendors who have products and/or services that may assist the Department of Public Safety (Motor Vehicle Branch) by providing solutions and expertise to achieve goals of improving the Motor Vehicle Program in New Brunswick. This is a business transformation project that will include opportunities related to "people, process, and technology." The closing date is July 21, 2008. (The issue date was Friday, June 13, 2008). The New Brunswick Opportunities Network can be reached at www.gnb.ca/3000 click on Tenders. Interested companies can search by the RFI number 0889016 and view the documents. To download the RFI documents, the system will require you to register as a vendor. There is no charge for the documents.

On June 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year 2009 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) legislation. The bill makes critical investments in the nation’s law enforcement, research, and technology agencies. The Fiscal Year 2009 CJS bill provides a total of $57.9 billion for discretionary programs of the Departments of Commerce and Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and eight related independent agencies. The recommendation is $4.2 billion above President Bush’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request and $6.1 billion above the 2008 enacted level. The Committee provides a total of $3.1 billion for state and local law enforcement, which is $439 million above the enacted level and $2 billion above the President’s budget request. This restoration of funding fills a major gap in the President’s request, and includes (among other things) $581 million for Byrne Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), state formula grants to assist local law enforcement. View the committee press release for more information.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) posted several presentations delivered at the 2008 Lifesavers conference in Portland, Oregon:

• "Using Data Collection to Strengthen Research Projects" provides information on how the National Center for Statistics & Analysis (NCSA) Collects, Analyzes and Disseminates data;
• "Event Data Recorder Technology in Support of a Crash Reconstruction" provides information on what EDR is, and what it means for you;
• "Backover & Non-Crash Events" provides information on protecting children in and around cars.

For more information, visit NHTSA's NCSA Web site.

The Altered Height Vehicle Working Group reviewed the issue of increased injury and fatalities as a result of crashes involving raised vehicles. The end product for the group included a study on the incidents of crashes, a white paper on the problem and drafting of model legislation for excessively raised vehicles. The model legislation was later reviewed by AAMVA membership in March 2007 and approved by the AAMVA Board of Directors in April 2007. The Province of Saskatchewan has become the first AAMVA jurisdiction to adopt the model legislation. A document containing the legislation may be viewed on the Province of Saskatchewan Web site. More information on the efforts of the Altered Height Vehicle Working Group is available on AAMVA's Web site, or contact Selden Fritschner via e-mail or (703) 908-5855.

On June 20, the House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Committee approved a fiscal year 2009 spending bill, which provides $108.3 billion in total budgetary resources for transportation and housing programs and is within the Subcommittee’s 302(b) allocation. Specifically in the transportation area, this bill makes transportation safety a priority. Some of the highlights include: $856 million, almost $19 million above last year, for highway safety programs under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA); $307 million, a $7 million increase above last year, for motor carrier safety oversight; $1.14 billion for aviation safety, including a $16 million increase for 200 additional aviation safety inspectors; and $20 million for air traffic controller training initiatives. Committee Chairman John W. Olver also made note of the shortfall in the Highway Trust fund saying that it is estimated that the Highway Account within the Highway Trust Fund will go broke in fiscal year 2009, with between a $1.4 billion and $3.3 billion deficit. Olver stated, "SAFETEA-LU overcommitted the dedicated revenues available for surface transportation and I am hopeful that the appropriate authorization and tax writing committees will be able to make up the shortfall as we continue to move this bill forward." Follow this link for a table of funding levels: http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/09THUDTableSubMarkup.pdf .

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on June 23 entitled "Border Security: State Department Should Plan for Potentially Significant Staffing and Facilities Shortfalls Caused by Changes in the Visa Waiver Program." GAO reports that the potential elimination or suspension of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) could cause dramatic increases in visa demand that could overwhelm visa operations in the near term. View the entire report online at http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-08-623 .

On June 20, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Fiscal Year 2008 REAL ID Demonstration Grant awards totaling nearly $80 million to assist states in improving the security of state-issued driver’s licenses and identification documents. Grants will fund state-specific projects like improving the physical security of licenses, upgrading facility security and modernizing document imaging and storage. Read more on the DHS Web site.

On June 18, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing titled "Protecting Personal Information: Is the Federal Government Doing Enough?" The testimony can be read or listened to on the Committee Web site.

In a June 20 Federal Register notice, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a notice advising the public of the availability on the Department of Transportation (DOT) Web site of revised guidance and an accompanying advisory policy memorandum concerning the value of a statistical life used by DOT analysts when assessing the benefits of preventing fatalities. Consistent with the revised guidance and DOT policy, the adjusted value of a statistical life will be assessed in conducting economic analyses and identifying the benefits of FMCSA regulatory initiatives in all open rulemaking dockets. On Feb. 5, 2008, DOT issued revised guidance concerning "Treatment of the Value of Preventing Fatalities and Injuries in Preparing Economic Analyses." Based on an improved understanding of relevant academic research literature, the revised guidance provides that the best present estimate of the economic value of preventing a human fatality is $5.8 million. In an advisory memorandum issued concurrently with the revised guidance to Secretarial Officers and Modal Administrators, Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Tyler Duval and General Counsel D.J. Gribbin instructed that the newly adjusted $5.8 million human life value should be used, effective immediately, for analyses performed by DOT. In addition, the memorandum announced that DOT will, for the first time, require supplementary analyses at values for a statistical life higher and lower than the $5.8 million adjusted value—specifically, assumptions of $3.2 million and $8.4 million for the value associated with each life saved. Consistent with the revised DOT guidance, FMCSA has reassessed the regulatory analyses in open rulemaking dockets to take account of the adjusted human life value. The revised guidance raising the economic value of preventing a human fatality and the accompanying policy memorandum may be found on the DOT Web site at: http://ostpxweb.ost.dot.gov/policy/reports/080205.htm.

The 2008 Fall Workshop takes place Oct. 27-30, in Tampa, Florida at the Hyatt Regency Tampa. Agenda and program information will be available soon! Find out first—sign up for e-mails on Workshop Updates today!

AAMVA University will conduct Fraudulent Document Recognition (FDR) Level II Training from Aug. 19 to 22 in Columbus, Ohio. This four-day course demonstrates how participants can contribute to fraud prevention efforts. The course combines the material from FDR Level I with a more in-depth look at covert security features. Participants will engage in hands-on experience evaluating various documents using UV lights and magnification loupes to build awareness of altered and counterfeited documents. There is no pre-requisite for this course. For more information, visit the events section of www.aamva.org or contact Linda Honig at lhonig@aamva.org or (866) 908-8270. The cut-off for discounted hotel rates is July 17.

AAMVA University announces a new series of courses on the Fraud Emergency Warning System (FEWS): FEWS Basic, FEWS Advanced, and FEWS Jurisdiction Administrator. If your jurisdiction is not taking advantage of FEWS or you would like to learn more about the system, visit the training portal at http://aamva.webroom.com, self-register as a new user, and self-enroll into the new courses. In response to members asking for advanced training, AAMVA University also offers the following advanced courses: Advanced ACD, Improving Data Quality, Error Detection and Resolution, and 3-Year Calculations of Serious Violations. This round of advanced courses will begin July 10. All courses are free for AAMVA members, are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-4pm EDT, and are delivered via the Internet with live instructors and subject matter experts.