New Tennessee bill would forbid use of state money to enforce ELD laws

New legislation introduced in Tennessee would undermine federal Electronic Logging Device (ELD) regulations by prohibiting the use of state funds to enforce the regulation.

The bill, known as TN HB1962, was introduced on January 29 by Rep. Dale Carr [R] and would “[Prohibit] state funding from being expended to implement or enforce electronic logging device (ELD) regulations in this state.”

The bill would work by intentionally failing to meet a requirement on the state of Tennessee to provide a 15% match of $608,152 to the $4,054,347 in federal funding provided by the Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The federal funds are meant to pay for the enforcement of ELD regulations. A law forbidding the state from making its 15% match would mean that Tennessee is out of compliance with federal law and would forfeit the federal funding of $4,054,347 for the year, leaving no money for ELD enforcement for the fiscal year.

The bill was assigned to the Transportation Subcommittee on February 5.

You can click here to read the full text of the bill.