BY TOM BADSTUBNER, RYAN COMBEST, MIKE DODD, RICK SCHWEITZER, AND STEVE GUGLIELMO
We had the opportunity to speak with GAWDA’s amazing Consultant team ahead of this year’s Annual Convention in Boston. The Consultants will be on site during the Convention, so if you have any questions you want answered, make sure to stop by the GAWDA Booth during the Contact Booth Program.
Last issue, we had a “Mid-Year Check-in.” This issue, we had an opportunity to discuss enforcement trends that have emerged over the first half of 2026, as well as discuss important world events that are impacting the industry and how the events in Washington are influencing gases and welding.
The GAWDA Consultant Program is a GAWDA member benefit that is included as part of your member dues to the association. It is consistently rated as one of the most valuable member benefits that GAWDA provides. Thank you to Tom Badstubner, GAWDA’s FDA and Medical Gases Consultant, Ryan Combest, DHS, EPA and OSHA Consultant, Mike Dodd, DOT Consultant, and Rick Schweitzer, Government Affairs and Human Resources Consultant, for lending their time and expertise to discuss these important topics. The following is a lightly edited transcript of that conversation.
Welding & Gases Today: We last spoke before this year’s SMC in Oklahoma City. Since then, is there anything pressing that members need to know about or any big things that have come out since we spoke last?
Tom Badstubner: The FDA is still publishing their “naughty list” of firms that did not submit their CARES reports for 2024 by March 31, 2026. If you are unsure about if your company is on the list, check out: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-shortages/companies-have-not-submitted-drug-amount-reports. Unfortunately, the FDA has not updated the published list… so your company might be listed if you submitted the CARES report after the deadline. Also, be aware that your 2025 CARES report was also due on March 31, 2026. If you still need to submit your 2025 report, we highly recommend that you do so soon.
WGT: If you’re on that list, obviously get your CARES reporting in, but is there some sort of penalty or anything like that?
TB: There are no direct penalties directly from that. It is possible that the FDA could use that list to prioritized audits. And, if you are inspected, you might expect a more rigorous inspection. It’s too soon to know exactly how the agency will use the list of late submitters. However, your customers and competitors also have access to the list. That’s probably even more effective than a fine.
WGT: CARES is just once a year, correct?
TB: Yeah, CARES is once a year, by March 31st for the previous year.
WGT: Okay, how about anything else time sensitive? Anything else before the Annual Convention in September that members need to be aware of?
Michael Dodd: Nothing from my end.
Rick Schweitzer: The end of September is the end of the government’s fiscal year. It’s also the end of the current five-year highway and infrastructure bill. So, Congress, right now, has to reauthorize that infrastructure bill by September 30th. They’re not going to meet that deadline. They’ll pass a temporary extension, maybe just to get through to December, but probably to get into the next Congress, which starts in January. So, it’ll maybe be a six-month extension.
The reason this is important is because it not only has highway funding provisions in it, it reauthorizes the entire federal aid highway program, but it also includes provisions on motor carrier safety and also hazardous materials transportation that gives directives to DOT on how it wants DOT to regulate in those areas.
And it also has to reauthorize all the taxes that support both the highway funding program and all the regulatory enforcement programs. The big question this year is whether they’re going to just stick with fuel taxes as the primary source of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund or go to something more like a user fee or even a registration fee. Some people are pushing for that, but my guess is they’ll still continue with the fuel tax with maybe a couple of tweaks here and there for things like taxing electric vehicles and such.
WGT: In the June 15th Safety & Compliance bulletin for the newsletter, one of the items was “House Committee Approves Five-Year Surface Transportation Bill.” Is that what you’re talking about?
RS: That’s what I’m talking about, and that’s where we still are. It has not moved to the floor of the House of Representatives, nor have we gotten a bill out of the Senate. I’m confident that Congress is not going to meet the September 30th deadline to get a bill through the House and the Senate and on the President’s desk.
WGT: Since we’re kind of already talking about the Safety & Compliance bulletins from the newsletter, another item that was in there that I wanted to ask about was “FMCSA implements MOTUS in an Attempt to Stop Fraudulent Carriers.” So, what does that mean and is it a big deal for GAWDA members?
RS: It’s a new IT platform within FMCSA that’s supposed to do a couple of things. It’s the way you register as a new motor carrier with FMCSA, but it’s also a way to do your every two years update on your MCS 150 form, which is to update your DOT registration as a motor carrier. They were also intending to include the HAZMAT registration that you have to do every July there, as well.
The good part of MOTUS is that it had additional protocols for ensuring the identification of the users and keeping people from fraudulently stealing your credentials or spoofing your identity. The problem, however, is that the whole system basically was overloaded when it was first started and carriers for weeks couldn’t get in to even access their files. Mike, I’ll let you talk about what members experienced.
Michael Dodd: Well, you kind of summed it up there, because some have been able to get in okay, but I’ve had a number of people saying that it’s just a mess and it won’t go in. And when they try to call the helpline, they’re on there for hours. So, it’s not like the clearinghouse, which I think went through a little bit easier.
It seems like this MOTUS has not had the horsepower behind it to let people get in there and get registered like it should. So, hopefully it’s not causing anybody any trouble. And right now, it’s just for the MCS 150 and most people are caught up there. I’m sure it’ll get straightened out, but right now, from what I gather, it’s more of a mess than a good thing.
RS: It is a work in progress.
WGT: That is the diplomatic way to say it. But for the members who have tried to log in, who have tried to access it and just can’t, where does that leave them? Are they unable to do something that is important? If a member just can’t get in, what’s the guidance?
MD: Yeah, right now, I haven’t had anybody that was in panic stage because they couldn’t get their 150 updated. What they are seeing is they’re getting emails from DOT that sound kind of threatening that you need to register, and yet when they try to do it, they can’t. So, I have to assure them that it’s not as dire as what the e-mail sounds like, and to just keep trying.
RS: And up until now, if you don’t renew your registration, eventually the FMCSA rescinds your registration and you’re no longer a legal motor carrier operator. They have issued guidance that said that, as of June 1st, they’ve suspended that effort. And so, anybody who’s unable to update their MCS 150 registration will no longer have their registration revoked or rescinded.
MD: That’s good news.
WGT: And then the last bit of compliance update that we had is stress corrosion cracks and CGA 580-cylinder valves. “GAWDA has received notice of several incidents of stress corrosion cracks, etc. The affected brass valves come from several manufacturers and analysis of independent materials testing and investigation firms found no evidence of flaws in design or manufacturing.” So, can you talk about how that came up and what the result has been since we’ve discovered them?
MD: Well, I believe the best way to do that is we had a member or two that had some cracking. They’ve investigated it. And, as you just kind of summarized, and I haven’t heard anything from it since, it seems like it’s really settled down. Unless one of you guys has heard something, I haven’t heard anything.
RS: We talked about it at the last safety committee meeting. But you’re right, it has settled down. It really only affects brass valves, and it is a result of using cleaning solutions that might corrode the valves and then over-torquing the valves over the course of time, and it weakens them. And so, it’s not something that is particular to any particular valve or any particular manufacturer.
We did send out a safety alert. We’ve been in contact with the CGA valve committee chairman. He contacted me and I had a long conversation with him as well as with at least one and maybe two valve manufacturer representatives. The safety committee is working on an overall best practice in this area. But CGA already has a very good document on this issue. This is not a new matter. It just came up again with one of the member companies.
MD: Let me add on to that a little bit. There has been a new item brought up by some members and CGA has been alerted and they’re working on it. And that’s the fact that it looks like we’ve got cylinders coming in from outside the country, typically from China is where most of them are coming from. And they’re coming with brass valves that are not properly marked according to CGA standard.
Now, that doesn’t mean the valve has been determined to be unsafe or anything. It’s just not properly marked. CGA did release a Safety Alert and we issued that out to all the membership via our GAWDA Safety Alert. This is a great example of how members can bring to us an issue and then GAWDA and CGA will work on it to issue some guidance to the field. This was accomplished in just
a few weeks.
WGT: Last time we talked, it’s hard to believe because it seems like it’s ancient history, but Ryan, we were in the midst of the DHS shutdown. We moved past that. But was there any fallout from that, from the fact there was this extended shutdown and then we came back?
Ryan Combest: You know, I haven’t heard anything like that happening since they came back on board. You know, within DHS, there is the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Since July 28, 2023, Congress allowed the statutory authority of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program to expire. Basically, CISA’s authority to enforce the CFATS standard had been paused or rescinded. And that had to do with a lot of reporting. And that’s still on pause. In the meantime, CISA encourages facilities to maintain security measures. So, as far as DHS as a whole, I haven’t heard of any type of action that has come about since they’ve been funded.
WGT: Okay. And then Mike, Tom talked about his naughty list people that didn’t do their CARES Reporting. Hazmat registration was also July 1st. If, for whatever reason, a member hasn’t done that, is there anything other than just do it that you can tell them?
MD: Well, I’ll tell you, most people have gotten to be pretty good about putting reminders into their calendar system. Years ago, they didn’t and it would slip past them, and they’d be caught during a roadside inspection. But honestly, in the last few years this hasn’t been a problem for most of our members.
Now, I do have one member that recently had a problem getting into the system. He did get the issue resolved. He just got in touch via their help line and got the problem resolved.
WGT: The other thing that we talked about pretty heavily in the Q2 issue , and I just didn’t know if it was worth repeating or if anything else had come of it, was the entry-level driver training and the changes that were made at FMCSA. Rick, is there anything since then?
RS : Well, there’s a rulemaking that’s going to come out, and it’s one of several rulemakings that I will sort of file under DOT getting rid of self-certification procedures. In the past, FMCSA has allowed companies and drivers to certify themselves that they are in compliance with the rules. And for things like entry level driver training, the training provider can certify that the company meets the FMCSA standards and then automatically gets put on their training provider registry. That’s going to end, most likely.
Similarly, new entrants, when a company that wants to be a new registrant, either as a private or for hire carrier with FMCSA, just self-certifies that they understand and meet all the safety standards. That’s not going to happen anymore. They’re going to have a new entrant audit program that’s going to be a lot more robust than what they’ve had currently.
And then the third one is the electronic logging device providers, they also self-certify that they meet the FMCSA requirements. And that will be a separate rulemaking where FMCSA uses some third-party entity, either government or private sector, to verify the compliance of the ELD providers. So, they’re getting away with just taking your word for it at FMCSA. I think it’s a good approach, because we’ve seen too much fraud, neglect, and just non-compliance.
WGT: How about any enforcement or audit trends that you’ve seen in the last couple of months? Anything that’s jumped out at you? Mike, last time you talked about an increase in the pipeline and hazardous materials type audits. Anything like that that’s coming up that you’re noticing is becoming
a trend?
MD: From the DOT standpoint, the PHMSA audits and the DOT audits seem to be back to normal. As a matter of fact, I helped a company last week prepare for a new entry motor carrier, and that was generated just from the fact that they went from intrastate to interstate. I went to their location and went through their recordkeeping system. It is that same system I have been giving our membership for over 20 years. They did great during their DOT audit with no violations found.
TB: From the FDA perspective, we’re not seeing anything unusual as far as enforcement right now. Things seem to be calm for GAWDA members. The majors are seeing inspections but we have seen very few FDA inspections this year.
Shortly after this comes out will be the FDA registration and listing process. It starts October 1st and goes until December 31 for the 2027 FDA Registration. And so, people should gear up for that or contact whoever’s doing their registration submissions just to be sure the submissions will be timely.
RC: Yeah, one of the things that we’ve seen that’s had a little traction in the last few months is we’ve had a few GAWDA members reach out, looking for guidance, looking for help with dealing with their local fire marshals.
These GAWDA members maybe acquired a new location. They already signed the paperwork on the lease or purchased the place. And then, they come to find out that they were unaware of some of the limitations and restrictions that the fire marshal is imposing upon them on how many or what type of gas cylinders can be stored inside or outside their facility.
That goes back to international fire codes and the NFPA 55 and whatever local codes that type of fire marshal is enforcing. The big piece of advice that we have to GAWDA members is to have those discussions early on before you sign paperwork. Understand what any type of restrictions or limitations that could be involved with that facility or that area. And understand that up front. And it won’t be a surprise and affect your business model, whatever you’re doing there and what you want to store.
Part of those discussions we have is, those GAWDA members would say, “Hey, we’ve had this facility for umpteen years, or our competitors have been in the place for umpteen years down the road. And we don’t see those restrictions or limitations on them.” And it’s this thing called grandfathering. So, if they’ve been in place and they’re following these older codes, they get to stay with those older codes unless there’s a permit being required or something changes that requires them to upgrade to the newest and greatest codes that are being enforced by that local authority having jurisdiction.
When you move into a new location, you’re going to be following whatever that current code is by that local authority having jurisdiction. So, we’ve had those discussions with those GAWDA members and we’re trying to help them navigate it. And I believe the safety committee actually created a sample safety practice
on this subject. So, that’s what we advise people to do is have those conversations early, understand what you’re getting into and avoid those surprises that could be a lot of heartburn.
WGT: Great tips. I want to end on some of the update stuff. Rick, I’m going to go to you first. What’s going on in Washington? We’ve got the war, we’ve got the elections going on. What’s going on that could potentially affect GAWDA members?
RS: The war and election are the two big things that are driving everything in Washington right now. And, you know, as Yogi Berra said, predictions are hard, especially about the future. So, it’s tough to tell you what’s going to happen with either one or with the war when it’s going to happen.
And the other big issue there, obviously, is the effect on petroleum prices and the downstream effect on other distillates, propane and other petroleum-based products, and how that affects transportation and manufacturing. Essentially everything that we buy. And it’s going to continue to be a driving force on inflation for the foreseeable future, as best I can tell.
WGT: Alright. We also have the Weldcoa Summit in October. Mike, you seem to have been the spokesman for this in the past. So, give me the elevator pitch on that.
MD: We typically have a very fine turnout at Weldcoa. It’s a wonderful venue. Weldcoa has a nice training room. We’ve got lots of equipment all around. Weldcoa does a great job of explaining all their equipment and all the things they’re doing. They give a great tour of their facility next door where they show all the robotics of making things. I think a highlight myself is their flexible pigtails and the effort they put in to put out a very quality pigtail. And they’re always a great host. We always get positive feedback from people that attend.
I’m a real believer in attending in person because I think members get so much more out of it. Communicating with each other, their peers, they make some friends, they make some contacts for the future. And they tend to walk away with everybody happy and satisfied with what they came for.
Now the flip side of that, with the webinar people, you know, we understand there are just some people that just can’t make the trip and it’s just more convenient for them to be able to conduct business on their end and attend it via webinar. And the only thing they lose out on is that interaction with the other people in the class, but otherwise they get the exact same course, the same things, et cetera. So, we always look forward to our meetings and Weldcoa has always been a good one. And the rest of the guys will tell you it’s we always have a good time there.
WGT: And then the last thing I wanted to end on is the Safety Committee is doing outstanding work that I don’t think maybe gets enough recognition within GAWDA. They’ve really upped their game on social media. I know that you have your dinner at the SMC, you have the monthly webinars, and then you’ll all be there in Boston for questions. So, any last words about the Safety Committee and the Government Affairs Committee and the work that they’re doing on behalf of the members?
TB: You know, the Safety Committee is constantly developing new material. There are four subcommittees in the Safety Committee, and each one of them has a separate set of content to develop. And so, my encouragement to the members is to check in often on safety subjects. It’s really evolving and it’s
constantly improving.
