Sometimes you really have to wonder what color the sky is in Washington, DC. It seems every time you turn around somebody in the ag community is battling the Department of Transportation (DOT) and some members of Congress over an hours-of-service exemption for retailers in the busy spring and fall seasons.

As you well know, there currently exists a farm supply and ag commodity exemption in the DOT for hours of service for drivers. So, when the issue keeps coming up again and again in U.S. House and Senate bills, and rural state congressmen (those few left) have to battle to get the exemption put in the transportation bills, you have to ask, “What are they thinking?”

Did something change with regard to spring planting and fall harvest in the rural areas of most of the country? I don't think so. Do city lawmakers still believe the food they eat and the milk they drink come from the back warehouse at a Wal-Mart Super Store? I would hope not. Renewing the hours-of-service exemption should be a simple process. NOT!

Anyway, thanks go to members of the U.S. House (and those ag organizations lobbying for the provision) for passing this exemption to the transportation bill. The Senate took care of this last year I believe.

Do I seem a little cynical about simple issues like this after all these years? It's no wonder that it appears to those of us outside Washington, DC, that the only thing Congress and the president ever deal with is who's to blame for knowing what happened when on the war on terrorism.

But that's another story for another time.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.