The Battle Over Tired Truckers: Obama Ditches Another Bush Rule

Oct. 30, 2009, 5:26 p.m. EDT

(Flickr user dominic bartolini) The Obama administration has overturned several midnight regulations ushered in by the Bush administration during its waning months. The latest rule to get the boot was finalized in December 2008 and upped the number of hours truckers could stay behind the wheel, despite safety concerns about driver fatigue.

Whatever you want to say about the Bush administration, you can't say it wasn't tenacious. It issued the same rule three times, even though the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., struck it down in both 2004 and 2008. In March of this year, a group of advocates asked the court to reconsider the rule once again. But the Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have instead agreed to settle (PDF). The agency ditched the rule and will begin anew from scratch.

For more on the Obama administration's approach to midnight regulations, check out this recent report by OMB Watch (PDF).

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