Budgetary Effects of the Elimination of ICC's Trucking Regulatory Responsibilities

GAo discussed the budgetary effects of the elimination of the Interstate Commerce Commission's (ICC) regulatory trucking responsibilities. GAO found that: (1) in fiscal year 1985, ICC used a total of 483 out of 916 staff years to regulate trucking; (2) if ICC regulatory functions were eliminated, the reduction in general management staff might be somewhat less than the amount of staff time allocated to each regulatory function; (3) three trucking deregulation bills would eliminate much of ICC rate and entry regulation, which consumes about 241 staff years, but ICC would retain regulation of household goods shipments; (4) although some ICC functions would not be explicitly transferred to other agencies, the agencies with existing authority might have to take over some of the regulatory functions and increase staff as a result; (5) the Department of Transportation would be responsible for enforcing an entry standard based on safety fitness and financial responsibility; (6) the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission would assume responsibility for antitrust enforcement; and (7) the determination of whether these agencies would need additional funding to handle the additional responsibilities would depend on the enforcement approaches they adopted.