To the Editor:

Re: “Gauge hits Wallet” by Mary Brown, in Letters, Nov. 5 Blue Mountain Eagle. I know which over-zealous morons are responsible for this idiocy: career politicians Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

On Sept. 13, 2000, Upton Introduced HR 5164, the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act (TREAD Act); on Sept. 15, 2000 McCain introduced its companion bill, the Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Equipment Defect Notification Improvement Act in the Senate.

Officially, the TREAD act/law was in response to the recall of “6.5 million Ford/Firestone tires and 100-plus fatalities from tire failures.” Unofficially, the TREAD Act was lobbied for and influenced by automobile and tire manufacturers as well as consumer safety advocates. It forced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to increase consumer safety through mandates in the form of requiring tire pressure monitoring systems. The NHTSA originally wanted the gauges placed in only one tire, but in March 2004 folks with more money than brains sued the NHTSA to force them to put gauges in all four tires, and in March 2006, U.S. District Judge Robert Leon ruled that gauges must be in all four tires.

In December 2000, NHTSA published a request for comments notice that ended Jan. 5, 2001. During the comment period few regular citizens submitted comments (who has time to read the Federal Register), but the NHTSA was inundated by submissions from well funded groups: insurance associations; consumer safety groups and manufacturers. The manufacturers got all kinds of exemptions from TREAD requirements; they were not required to build gauges into tires, which would have been cheaper for us consumers, and they got a yet to be voted on bill to exempt small trailer tires.

I would advise Brown and others to send copies of their receipts along with “thank you for the extra cost” cards to Upton and McCain along with asking the question: Why is it small government Republicans always shove Big Brother government regulation down the throat of the average Joe/Jane, but exempt big corporations?

L Johnson

Bend