Issues
The U.S. Senate Small Business Committee held a markup yesterday for S. 1687, The Small Business Cyber Training Act of 2021. The Committee voted to favorably recommend this bill for passage by the full U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation would create a program to train counselors at Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) to provide…
President Biden released his $5.8 trillion budget proposal today for FY 2023. The budget includes $105 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation, funding important agencies such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency (NHTSA). The U.S. Department of Transportation Budget proposal includes provisions for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, investments in autonomous…
This week, John Deere announced intentions to expand access to self-repair resources for consumers and independent repair shops. Earlier this month, two federal lawsuits were filed against the agriculture equipment manufacturer alleging that the company was engaging in unfair competitive practices by restricting the access of consumers and independent repair shops to service information and…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) restored the waiver allowing California the authority to enforce more stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) restrictions. This waiver was previously revoked under the Trump administration. This waiver also allows other states to follow in California’s lead and enforce stricter GHG emissions restrictions in their states as well. Currently, 16 states…
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla model year 2021-2022 vehicles after multiple reports of sudden, unexpected braking. The agency is investigating over 400,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y cars after 354 complaints of “unexpected brake activation” were filed in the last 9 months. The complaints are related to unexpected braking…
The Deputy Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Steven Cliff, signed a final rule this week to amend NHTSA’s lighting standard to permit the certification of adaptive driving beam (ADB) headlamps. This final rule amends Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 to allow ABD headlamps on vehicles sold in the…
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) released the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program Guidance today. This document details the program requirements for the federal money allocated to states for electric vehicle charging stations. Last year, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill was passed, and included was $7.5 billion in funding for a national network of…
This week, legislation was introduced into the Canadian Parliament focused on the “Right to Repair”. This legislation was introduced by Brian Masse, an NDP member of Parliament representing Windsor West in Ontario, as a private members’ bill. If passed, the bill would grant access to OEM-approved tools and information necessary to repair vehicles to independent…
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released a draft Standardized Regulatory Impact Assessment (SRIA) for the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACCII) regulations. The SRIA assesses the economic impacts of a regulatory proposal. CARB released the first set of ACC rulings in 2012 to control emissions from passenger vehicles. The regulations combined the control of smog-causing…