Prime Policy Group provided significant assistance this week to two of our trade association clients, the United Motorcoach Association and the National School Transportation Association, on the groups’ number one issue relating to minimum insurance requirements they are required to have to operate. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is attempting to significantly raise insurance requirements for school bus and motorcoach operators in a regulatory proceeding, without any analysis of passenger transportation accident data or insurance industry claims history, insurance capacity, economic impact of significant increases, or making any correlation between insurance limits and safety. Prime assisted UMA and NSTA in achieving a provision in the House FY 2016 Department of Transportation (DOT) Appropriations bill (Section 134 of HR 2577) that would stop DOT from using any funds to conclude this rulemaking to increase the insurance limits. The provision survived two attempts to strike; one in the Committee markup on May 13th and another on the House floor on June 5th. The House floor amendment was defeated by a strong bipartisan vote of 176-247. Prime helped direct advocacy efforts beginning earlier this year by coordinating both groups’ Fly-In’s in March and April where the issue was the highest priority, and led efforts to defeat both amendments. Our efforts included direct lobbying by firm members, in addition to coordinating grass roots efforts of both trade groups. The effort was led by Managing Director, Becky Weber.United Motorcoach Association Press Release