§ 5221. CORRELATION STUDY.
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In General .— The Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (referred to in this part as the ‘Administrator’) shall commission the National Research Council of the National Academies to conduct a study of— the Compliance, Safety, Accountability program of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (referred to in this part as the ‘CSA program’); and the Safety Measurement System utilized by the CSA program (referred to in this part as the ‘SMS’). Scope of Study .— In carrying out the study commissioned pursuant to subsection (a), the National Research Council— shall analyze— the accuracy with which the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories (referred to in this part as ‘BASIC’)— identify high risk carriers; and predict or are correlated with future crash risk, crash severity, or other safety indicators for motor carriers, including the highest risk carriers; the methodology used to calculate BASIC percentiles and identify carriers for enforcement, including the weights assigned to particular violations and the tie between crash risk and specific regulatory violations, with respect to accurately identifying and predicting future crash risk for motor carriers; the relative value of inspection information and roadside enforcement data; any data collection gaps or data sufficiency problems that may exist and the impact of those gaps and problems on the efficacy of the CSA program; the accuracy of safety data, including the use of crash data from crashes in which a motor carrier was free from fault; whether BASIC percentiles for motor carriers of passengers should be calculated separately from motor carriers of freight; the differences in the rates at which safety violations are reported to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for inclusion in the SMS by various enforcement authorities, including States, territories, and Federal inspectors; and how members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes and eliminating unsafe motor carriers from the industry; and shall consider— whether the SMS provides comparable precision and confidence, through SMS alerts and percentiles, for the relative crash risk of individual large and small motor carriers; whether alternatives to the SMS would identify high risk carriers more accurately; and the recommendations and findings of the Comptroller General of the United States and the Inspector General of the Department [of Transportation], and independent review team reports, issued before the date of enactment of this Act [ Dec. 4, 2015 ].
Report .— Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall— submit a report containing the results of the study commissioned pursuant to subsection
(a)to— the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate; the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives; and the Inspector General of the Department; and publish the report on a publicly accessible Internet Web site of the Department. Corrective Action Plan.— In general .— Not later than 120 days after the Administrator submits the report under subsection (c), if that report identifies a deficiency or opportunity for improvement in the CSA program or in any element of the SMS, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a corrective action plan that— responds to the deficiencies or opportunities identified by the report; identifies how the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will address such deficiencies or opportunities; and provides an estimate of the cost, including with respect to changes in staffing, enforcement, and data collection, necessary to address such deficiencies or opportunities. Program reforms .— The corrective action plan submitted under paragraph
(1)shall include an implementation plan that— includes benchmarks; includes programmatic reforms, revisions to regulations, or proposals for legislation; and shall be considered in any rulemaking by the Department that relates to the CSA program, including the SMS or data analysis under the SMS. Inspector General Review .— Not later than 120 days after the Administrator submits a corrective action plan under subsection (d), the Inspector General of the Department shall— review the extent to which such plan addresses— recommendations contained in the report submitted under subsection (c); and relevant recommendations issued by the Comptroller General or the Inspector General before the date of enactment of this Act; and submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives a report on the responsiveness of the corrective action plan to the recommendations described in paragraph (1).