National Traffic

and Motor Vehicle
Safety Act of 1966

Legislative History

Volume I

1985

U.S.Department of Transportation

National Highway Traffic Safety

Preface

Volume I of this legislative history contains the documents related to the enactment of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.

At the time of publication of this volume, the current history of the 1966 Act and its amendments occupies five volumes. The latest amendment included in these volumes was approved by the President on November 8, 1984 (Public Law 98-620). Additional volumes will be issued to cover any future amendments. The fifth volume also contains two appendices and an index to all five volumes.

For the original 1966 Act and for all of its amendments longer than one section, this history is presented in two parts: (1) legislative documents associated with enactment; and (2) sectionby-section analysis. For amendments limited to one section in length, those which constitute separate Acts require only a documents history, while those which are incorporated in longer Acts on different subjects require only a section-by-section analysis.

Except for Volumes I and II (the documents history and the secton-by-section analysis, respectively, of the 1966 Act), no other volume is wholly devoted to one part of a legislative history. Volumes III and V each contain two-part histories of several different amendments, while Volume IV contains both the documents history and the section-by-section analysis of the lengthy 1974 Amendments to the Act. A contents summary of the first five volumes precedes the Table of Contents of this volume.

Throughout this volume, the page numbers provided for the House and Senate debates are from the bound edition of the Congressional Record. In addition to the pagination of each volume of this history, the page numbers of the original legislative documents have been preserved. The section-by-section analyses provide the page numbers of the original sources in the page margins. These page numbers begin with the word underscored in the text.

The legislative events leading to the enactment of the 1966 Act may be briefly summarized as follows:

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1. On March 4, 1965, Senator Magnuson introduced S. 1350, an Administration bill to amend an Act relating to the establishment of a register of names in the Department of Commerce of certain motor vehicle drivers. This bill became the basis for Title IV of the 1966 Act, "National Driver Register".

2. On April 1, 1965, Senator Nelson introduced S. 1643 to provide that tires sold or shipped in interstate commerce for use on motor vehicles shall comply with certain safety and labeling regulations. Hearings on S. 1643 were held by the Senate Commerce Committee on May 25, June 7, and August 13, 1965.

3.

On October 19, 1965, Senator Magnuson introduced S. 2669, a bill entitled the "Tire Safety Act of 1966". This bill became the basis for Title II of the 1966 Act, "Tire Safety". 4. On March 24, 1966, the Senate Committee on Commerce reported S. 2669. Senate Report No. 1089 accompanied S. 2669 as reported.

5. On March 29, 1966, the Senate passed S. 2669, with amendment, and referred the Senate-passed bill to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on March 30, 1966.

6. On March 2, 1966, Representative Staggers and Senator Magnuson respectively introduced H.R. 13228 and S. 3005, identical Administration bills entitled the "Traffic Safety Act of 1966".

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On March 15-17, April 26-28, and May 3-5, 10-13, 1966, hearings on H.R. 13228 were held before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.

8. On March 16, 17, 29, 30, and April 4-6, 1966, hearings on S. 3005 were held before the Senate Committee on Commerce. 9. On June 23, 1966, S. 3005 was reported from the Senate Committee on Commerce. Senate Report No. 1301 accompanied S. 3005 as reported.

10. On July 28, 1966, H.R. 13228 was reported from the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. House Report No. 1776 accompanied H.R. 13228 as reported. 11. On June 24, 1966, S. 3005 as reported from the Senate Committee on Commerce was considered and passed by the Senate. The Senate-passed bill was referred to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on June 27, 1966.

12. On August 10, 1966, House Resolution 965, to provide for consideration by the House of H.R. 13228, was reported by

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the House Rules Committee. H. Res. 965 was agreed to by the House on August 17, 1966.

On August 17, 1966, H.R. 13228, as reported by the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, was considered, amended, and passed by the House. In accordance with the terms of H. Res. 965, the passage of H.R. 13228 was then vacated and S. 3005, as passed by the Senate, was passed in the House in lieu of H.R. 13228, after being amended to contain the House-passed language.

14. On August 18, 1966, the Senate disagreed to the House amendments to S. 3005 and asked for a conference with the House.

15. On August 31, 1966, the Senate and House both agreed to the report of the committee of conference on S. 3005. House Report No. 1919 accompanied the conference bill.

16. On September 9, 1966, the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-563) was approved by President Lyndon B. Johnson.