DOT Publishes Civil Penalty Increase Rule – 2024

Today, the Department of Transportation published a direct final rule in the Federal Register (88 FR 89551-89568) on “Revisions to Civil Penalty Amounts, 2024”. This rule makes adjustments to the civil penalties that DOT and its modal agencies may levy for violations of various and sundry transportation regulations. These annual updates are required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (PL 101-41). The adjustments were made using a multiplicative factor of 1.03241.

Agencies of potential interest here include:

Office of the Secretary,

FAA,

NHTSA,

FMCSA,

FRA, and

PHMSA

The effective date of the regulation is December 28^th, 2023. The preamble notes that:

“The Department emphasizes that this rule adjusts penalties prospectively, and therefore the penalty adjustments made by this rule will apply only to violations that take place after this rule becomes effective. This rule also does not change previously assessed or enforced penalties that DOT is actively collecting or has collected.”