Issues
The U.S. Small Business Committee this week held a hearing entitled “State of the Small Business Economy in the Era of COVID-19”. During the hearing, lawmakers questioned four witnesses: Sharon Pinder, President and CEO of the Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council, Stephen Shoaps, owner of Strother Cinema in Oklahoma, Robert Fairlie, a professor of…
This morning, ASA signed onto a letter sent by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) to the U.S. Congress opposing the Raise the Wage Act of 2021. This legislation, if passed, would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next five years. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), raising…
Today, the Coalition for Future Mobility (CFM), a group that includes the Automotive Service Association and 44 other auto industry stakeholders, sent a letter to the U.S. Congress encouraging the support of autonomous vehicle (AV) legislation this year. In the letter, CFM urged the U.S. Congress to establish a federal framework for the development of…
The Coalition for Sustainable Automotive Regulation (CSAR), a coalition of automakers including Toyota Motor Corp., Fiat Chrysler, and Hyundai, announced this morning their withdrawal from an emissions lawsuit between California and the federal government. The group of automakers have been defending the federal government in their petition to revoke California’s Clean Air Waiver. California’s…
Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released new guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. These guidelines come after President Joe Biden’s January 21 executive order on “Protecting Worker Health and Safety”. The new guidelines include a recommendation to wear face coverings in the office, as well…
The Biden administration has made it clear that environmental reform and fighting climate change will be a top policy issue for the next four years. A central tenet of new environmental policy is likely to be a push for electric and zero-emission vehicles. Read an analysis of electric vehicle adoption here.
President Biden signed today an “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad”. This executive order is the first step in the Biden administration’s sweeping plans for environmental reform over the next four years. In the order, President Biden reiterates his goal of for a carbon-free electricity sector in the United States…
On Thursday, the Biden Administration announced a slate of new appointments to the Department of Transportation (DOT). The majority of these announcements are deputy positions that do not require Senate confirmation and allow employees to get to work right away. Notable appointments include Steve Cliff, a former California air quality official, to run the National…
The National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) published a final rule this week exempting 325 motor vehicles per year from Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). The motor vehicles exempted must be copies of vintage cars produced by small manufacturers. To read the ruling, click here.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) published a final rule today that is intended to streamline innovation of autonomous vehicles by making it easier to manufacture and test new vehicle technology. The final rule clarifies some ambiguities within the agency vehicle safety standards, such as the crashworthiness requirement for new vehicles. Since many…