Posted on 08/03/2011 9:16:10 AM PDT by bkopto
Tractors lumbering down country roads are as common as deer in rural Montana, but the federal government wants to place new driving regulations on farmers and ranchers.
“It’s a huge deal for us,” said John Youngberg of the Montana Farm Bureau. After years of allowing state governments to waive commercial driver’s license requirements for farmers hauling crops or driving farm equipment on public roads, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is poised to do away with the exceptions.
Regulators are suggesting that all wheat shipments be considered interstate, even when farmers making short hauls to local grain elevators aren’t crossing state lines. The change would make commercial driver’s licenses — and all the log books and medical requirements that go with them — a necessity for farmers. Some might not qualify.
(snip)
FMCSA argues that because grain will ultimately be shipped out of state, it should be regulated as an interstate product at every transportation step. Treated as a product destined to cross state lines, grain becomes federally regulated under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
The Federal government, and the courts who have foisted tortured interpretations of the Commerce Clause upon us, are broken beyond belief. And these idiots who are strangling all of us are funded by OUR tax dollars. We taxpayers are underwriting our own destruction.
This agency should be eliminated, right after the BATFE and Dept. of (re)Education.
So let’s make it harder for the people whom grow your food to do their jobs?
“Growing the economy” by making businesses jump through regulatory hoops.
So the farmer whose property is cut in half by a public road with fields on one side and grain storage on the other would technically be in violation if the grain trailer is hauled from the field to the silo?
Mental illness permeates government these days.
I drove grain from the field to the elevator in town by truck and tractor when i was 12-13 years old. Do what you have to do to survive..
To hell with the lawyers. “First, we kill all the bureaucrats...”.
It is time to start ignoring the fed’s. T
The Feds must think it’s called the Kill Commerce Clause.
Let them regulate it, then let them enforce it too. When the feds start stopping farmers here in Indiana then the brown stuff is going to hit the fan big time.
Hell, I drive my tractor to work all the time when I need to work on it here, are they going to demand I get this license also, when I don’t farm? Screw them, this is enough to start shooting over.
We had a state road that went through the farm back home. They wanted us to register, insure, have all rolling equipment inspected and have plates issued for anything on the farm that had wheels.
I might consider it if and only if they require the same for bicycles
I grew up on a farm. Many summers were spent on the tractor, taking a couple wagon-loads of grain to the local Elevator; while Dad was on the combine filling another couple wagons for me to pick up and haul, on my return trip.
Now, the laws back then allowed children as young as 14 to drive a tractor on the road to town.
This law will hamstring the farmers - as it will prevent their children from contributing to the success of the farming operation. If the farmer has to HIRE someone to drive his grain to market, instead of relying upon his kids - this will drive even more farmers under.
I was driving grain trucks and machinery the week after I got my driver’s license. Most summer farm labor is under 21 and part of that is driving and moving equipment. Most states require age 21 to get a CDL.
This is stupid.
Chickens, coming hom to roost . . . baby.
I'm ambivalet on this. I hate to see more regulation, but I've also seen farmers here in GA drive farm machinery on the roads like they were total morons. Pay absolutely no attention to stop signs, and then go 30 mph below the speed limit down the middle of the road once they get in front of you. Hold up a string of 25 or 30 vehicles while going 10 mph and failing to pull over periodically to let them pass (as is required by state la here in GA).
This is all part of the plan.
Unmitigated BULL$HIT!
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