POSSIBLE CHANGE TO HOS RULES:  Two provisions of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Hours-of-Service rules (HOS) for truck drivers have been struck down by a federal court.  In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit  ruled that truck drivers will be limited to 10 hours per day instead of the current 11 hours. The court said FMCSA ''failed to provide an adequate explanation for its decision to adopt the 11-hour daily driving limit,'' The court also eliminated the 34-hour restart provision of the HOS rule. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has asked the Department of Transportation (DOT) to seek a stay of the recent court ruling.  Unless the Court grants a stay of its decision, the new 10 hour limit and 34 hour restart rules take effect on September 14, 2007.

PAY DISCRIMINATION: Congressional Democrats, unhappy with a recent Supreme Court decision making it harder for employees to sue for pay discrimination, are rushing to pass legislation (HR 2831) to essentially eliminate the statute of limitations on such cases.  The House passed the bill in July and Senate Democrats are working on a similar measure.  H.R. 2831 allows employees to bring a claim of pay or other employment-related discrimination years or even decades after the alleged discrimination occurred.  Critics of the bill contend the HR 2831 far exceeds the stated purpose of undoing the Court’s decision by extending the expanded statute of limitations to any “other practice” that remotely affects an individual’s wages, benefits, or other compensation in the future. This could effectively waive the statute of limitations for a wide variety of claims (such as promotion and arguably even termination decisions) traditionally regarded as actionable only when they occur.  Even if Congress passes the legislation, President Bush has said he will veto the bill. 
  
NEW IMMIGRATION RULES:  A month after immigration reform legislation failed in Congress, the Bush administration has announced a broad campaign to pressure employers to fire illegal immigrant workers and to tighten border security.  The 26 measures -- most of which continue or expand on current policies -- include raising fines for knowingly hiring illegal workers, streamlining current guest-worker programs, and bolstering an electronic system employers can use to verify workers' legal status. Particularly controversial and of grave concern to the business community are new guidelines for employers who receive a "no-match" letter from the Social Security Administration informing them that 10 or more of their employees have Social Security numbers that do not correspond with government records.  The new regulations -- which will take effect September 14, 2007 -- offer employers "a safe harbor" from prosecution if they require their employee to resolve the no-match discrepancy within 90 days -- for instance, by contacting the appropriate government agency to correct mistaken records. If the worker is unable to do so, the employer must terminate the worker or face potential criminal liability. Also, there are concerns within the business community that employers may open themselves to civil rights lawsuits when they fire a legal worker who is unable to resolve his case within 90 days.   A copy of the new rules can be found at:  http://www.asa.net/docs/GA/Immigration%20Rules%20-Aug.pdf

REPEAL 3% WITHHOLDING – REQUEST TO ALL ASA MEMBERS: In early September, ASA members will receive an ASA Legislative Alert requesting your help in contacting members of Congress and asking them to cosponsor legislation repealing the 3% withholding from payments on government contracts.  When Congress returns in September, ASA and other members of the Government Withholding Relief Coalition are going to double our efforts to educate members of Congress about this issue.  The goal – enactment of the legislation repealing the 3% withholding.   The House bill (HR 1023) currently has 188 cosponsors and the Senate bill (S 777) nine.  Earlier this summer, the House Ways and Means Committee added language to an unrelated tax bill that delays the effective date of the 3% withholding requirement by one-year to December 31, 2011.  The Committee also added language directing the Secretary of the Treasury to study issues associated with the three-percent withholding requirement, including (1) the problems, if any, which are anticipated in administering and complying with such requirements, (2) the burdens, if any, that such requirements will place on small businesses (taking into account such mechanisms as may be necessary to administer such requirements), and (3) the application of such requirements to small expenditures for services and goods by governments. The Secretary is to submit the report to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance no later than six months after the Committee’s bill is signed into law.  While this one-year delay is good news, it does not solve the problem.   Watch for ASA’s Legislative Alert in early September.

APPLIANCE STANDARDS:  ASA’s efforts to defeat a legislative proposal allowing the Department of Energy (DOE) to adopt regional appliance efficiency standards for air conditioners, boilers and furnaces have been unsuccessful so far.  ASA   worked with HARDI, ACCA and NAPHCC to include language in the House Energy bill requiring DOE to work with stakeholders to determine whether regional standards are economically justified.  The House passed the bill without including the “study” language.   The House and Senate have passed different “energy” measures and will have to resolve the differences before a bill is sent to the President.  ASA and others in the industry will continue exploring opportunities to prevent “regional” standards. 

LABOR UNIONS ASK NLRB TO ORDER EMPLOYEES TO BARGAIN: Several unions (including the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers) have asked the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to order employers to bargain with unions, even when the unions represent only a minority of employees. Such action would be a sharp departure from current practices, in which employers are required to bargain with a union only after it shows that a majority of employees at a workplace support it.  The unions hope that such a change will make it easier to unionize workers.  In their request, the unions say NLRB should return to a largely forgotten practice, prevalent in the 1930s, in which companies often bargained with unions representing only a minority of workers who had joined them. Union officials acknowledged that the labor board, currently dominated by appointees of President Bush, would probably not adopt a rule so favorable to unions. But union officials said they were petitioning now in the hope that there will be a Democratic president someday who will appoint a board that will look favorably upon their argument.

Prepared by Kent & O'Connor, Incorporated, and sponsored by the ASA Government and Public Affairs Program.