U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, in partnership with Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia, introduced a bill Thursday that would enable local governments to more easily prevent predatory towing practices.
The bill will help resolve issues with federal law, which currently limits state and local jurisdictions from regulating the towing industry, according to the two Democratic congressmen.
Van Hollen said Thursday in an interview with Bethesda Beat that he introduced the bill after hearing “all the horror stories from across the region about the abusive practices of some of these towing companies.”
He said there’s currently a “sort of bizarre part of federal law that preempts local jurisdictions” from having the flexibility to prevent predatory towing practices.The provision dates back to 1994 and has been made more complicated by multiple court decisions, according to Van Hollen.
In a nutshell, the 1994 federal law preempts local laws attempting to regulate towing services because tow trucks are classified as “interstate carriers,” according to a 2007 congressional study on the issue. In 1995, Congress eliminated the federal regulatory body that had overseen the towing industry's rates and services, according to the study.
“There’s no reason the federal government should be preventing counties and local jurisdiction from applying common sense rules in their areas,” Van Hollen said.
Similar federal legislation to bring the towing industry under local and state control was previously introduced by Rep. Jim Moran in 2014. Beyer replaced the retiring Moran in January after winning Northern Virginia’s District 8 election in November. Moran’s bill was also sponsored by Van Hollen. The bill never moved out of a House of Representatives transportation subcommittee.
This time, the congressmen plan to attach the bill as an amendment to a transportation reauthorization bill that Congress is expected to take up in the next couple of months. If that doesn’t work, Van Hollen said they’ll try to pass the bill on its own.
“I can only say we’re going to work hard to get it through,” Van Hollen said. “We want to find out who the opposition is. I’ve never heard a good argument about why the federal government should be micromanaging local jurisdictions on this issue.
“If we get this attached, then we can fight it out. Right now it’s a little bit of shadowboxing, it’s not clear who the opposition is.”
Both Van Hollen’s Montgomery County constituency and Beyer’s Arlington and Alexandria-based district have grappled with predatory towing problems.
In Montgomery County, the Office of Consumer Protection receives hundreds of complaints per year related to cars being towed from private parking lots. The office says it costs individuals about $168 on average to get their cars back from towing companies and even more for storage costs if they wait a day or two to reclaim their vehicles.
The issue most frequently occurs when drivers park in a private lot and their cars are towed quickly, according to the consumer protection office. Many drivers have reported to the county they didn’t know they were illegally parked when they left their cars.
In April, Montgomery County Council member Roger Berliner introduced legislation aimed at making predatory towing more difficult. That bill requires private parking lot owners to maintain records about nonconsensual tows on their lots and enables the county executive to set a flat rate for towing services, which is designed to prevent towing companies from charging high costs.
Arlington’s predatory towing issues came into focus earlier this year after ESPN personality Britt McHenry got into a testy exchange with a tow company attendant after her vehicle was towed. ABC7 reported in April that one towing company in Arlington would tow an illegally parked car in less than 60 seconds after the driver left the vehicle.
