Trial Magazine

President Trump has not said much so far about his administration’s transportation policy. His transportation-related campaign promise was a $1 trillion infrastructure investment. But the president’s choice for secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Elaine Chao, may reveal how the agency will handle issues that affect your practice.

As the former U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) secretary under George W. Bush, Chao was close to corporations. Under her leadership, the DOL issued few new safety regulations and drastically reduced the number of mine safety inspections, which directly led to two major mining accidents.

If her tenure at the DOL is any indication of how she’ll run the DOT, the corporate transportation sector likely will get much of what it asks for. It is difficult to predict what will happen, but here are a few areas to watch.

Driverless cars and trucks. Some experts predict driverless technology will be widely available within five years. Under the Obama administration, the DOT spent significant time and energy preparing the country for implementing driverless technology. In the new administration, comprehensive driverless technology regulations are unlikely. The auto industry believes that the government should take a hands-off approach and let the marketplace sort itself out.

Interstate trucking. Trucking trade associations and advocacy groups have openly boasted that they expect extreme regulatory reform. They are asking for hours-of-service requirements to be relaxed and for many safety-related trucking rules to be reevaluated for their economic impact on carriers rather than their overall safety impact. We also could see an ­erosion of shipper and broker accountability.

Automotive safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) aggressively enforced safety standards during much of the Obama administration. For example, NHTSA pursued Takata for defective air bags, General Motors for faulty ignition switches, and Toyota for accelerator issues. The agency has done as much as it can to insulate itself from immediate and drastic change.

The administrator will certainly leave, but the acting deputy administrator and the chief of staff are civil servants who cannot be immediately removed. Still, a new administrator likely will be far less aggressive in enforcing safety-related regulations and holding automakers accountable when their vehicles harm consumers.

It’s also unlikely that new safety regulations will be issued—certainly not soon. This expectation has already affected industry behavior. Before the election, a national used car chain had voluntarily stopped selling cars with an open recall, believing new regulations were imminent. But after the election, the company reversed its position, noting that the regulatory environment had changed. We hope the remaining DOT staff will continue to vigilantly protect the public and will not fall prey to industry-friendly political appointees.

Only time will tell how the Trump administration’s transportation policy develops. AAJ will do ­everything possible to avoid losing ground on the regulatory and legislative fronts to ensure that your clients are protected.

John Bowman is AAJ’s director of federal relations. He can be reached at john.bowman@justice.org.