‘Live From Exit 24’ recap: Election Day fallout

While there remains no clear winner in the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, several key congressional and statehouse races have been decided. And how the fallout from Election Day will impact truckers was the topic on Wednesday’s episode of OOIDA’s “Live From Exit 24.”

Listen to ‘Live From Exit 24’

Host Mike Matousek, OOIDA’s manager of government affairs, along with special guest OOIDA executive vice president Lewie Pugh, broke down the results of Tuesday’s elections. With Democrats holding onto their majority in the House but Republicans retaining the Senate, the next Congress could look a lot like Spaghetti Junction during rush hour. Gridlocked.

“It appears the House will stay blue, the Senate will stay red,” Matousek said. “In other words, another couple of years or more of congressional gridlock.”

OOIDA had its eyes on several races including the House races involving Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, and Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. Both have championed positions OOIDA supports, with Babin putting forth a bill to delay the ELD mandate and Bost co-sponsoring a bill to increase truck parking nationwide.

With Democrats retaining their control of the House, leadership of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is unlikely to change.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., are the respective chair and ranking member of the committee. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, D-Iowa, lost her bid for re-election and will be replaced as a member of the committee.

Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the head of the House Committee on Agriculture, was defeated by Republican challenger Michelle Fischbach. The current vice-chair of that committee is Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C.

In the Senate, Republican Steve Daines of Montana fended off a challenge from Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock to retain his seat in the upper chamber. Daines has been an OOIDA ally on opposing increasing insurance minimums for commercial vehicles.

“We had some friends, people that have been good on our issues over the years, a lot of them are coming back to Congress… Collectively, not a huge change on the House side,” Matousek said.

Pugh said that while gridlock can be frustrating at times, there can be bright sides when it comes to OOIDA’s legislative agenda.

“It seems like when we do have gridlock, at times we don’t have as much stuff to worry about getting through that are going to harm us,” he said. “The only problem with gridlock is we also don’t have things getting through that will help us.”

Other issues

Election results weren’t the only topic of discussion on Wednesday’s episode. Callers from California, Indiana, New Jersey and Wisconsin dialed in with questions about CSA reform, worker misclassification, underride guards and detention time.

Next episode of ‘Live From Exit 24’

“Live From Exit 24,” is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central every other Wednesday. Listeners can tune in to the show on the Live From Exit 24 website, OOIDA Facebook page or on OOIDA’s YouTube channel. The next episode airs Wednesday, Nov. 18.

Survey

“Live From Exit 24” launched earlier this year as a way to expand OOIDA’s communication with members and to hear directly from drivers across the industry.

OOIDA is asking for truck drivers to fill out a survey to let the Association know how you are liking the show so far. The survey can be found here. LL