|
Armstrong stands firm on
unnecessary burdens on
commercial drivers
Hoping to improve House
Bill 2532,
Rep. Mike
Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, offered an amendment in the
House tonight designed to protect commercial drivers from unnecessary
and onerous new testing.
“School bus drivers and
others who drive for churches, community organizations and businesses
shouldn’t be asked to re-take tests they’ve passed when it’s simply not
necessary,” said Armstrong.
House Bill 2532 would modify Washington’s rules on granting commercial
driver’s licenses to meet new federal government requirements.
But Armstrong believes those who currently have a commercial driver’s
license (CDL) have proven their competence and shouldn’t have to do it
again.
“My amendment simply says
we should ‘grandfather’ in the people who have CDLs and are capable of
driving a bus now because they would be just as capable of driving their
buses after this law goes into effect,” said Armstrong.
Implying that the legislation doesn’t change these folks’ competence,
Armstrong went on to say, in his comments to fellow members in the House
tonight, that he would vote no on House Bill 2532 and hoped others would
do likewise.
“We passed this bill out of committee with the idea we would improve on
it. But if we can’t pass this amendment that would do just that for
existing drivers, this bill doesn’t work for the people of Washington,”
Armstrong continued.
The bill passed out of the House despite a third of House members voting
no. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. Armstrong added that he
hopes it will be fixed in that chamber and sent back to the House for
another vote when he and others could support it.
# # #
For more information, contact:
John
Sattgast, Public Information Officer: (360) 786-7257
|