FRA’s Board has identified the credit crisis afflicting loggers and other small businesses in the wood supply chain as a policy priority for FRA, and FRA has endorsed the Credit Union Small Business Jobs Bill (S 2231, HR 1418).

In early October, a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration official stated that FMCSA was exploring ways for motor carriers to receive credits to their Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) BASIC scores for positive screening or inspection outcomes, rather than just demerits for defects.

On September 27, an estimated 70 log trucks, at least some fully loaded, “rolled through downtown Duluth [Minnesota] this morning to draw attention to complaints about weight limits on interstate highways that lead some trucks to use state highways and city streets instead,” according to that day’s [Minneapolis] MinnPost.

On August 13, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), Chair of the House Conservation, Energy and Forestry Subcommittee, and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Oregon), a member of that Subcommittee, sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack expressing their concern about USDA’s implementation of its Biobased Markets Program, which establishes a federal procurement preference and voluntary labeling program for what it defines as “biobased products.”