House panel 'strongly' urges Uber, Lyft to take part in hearing

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft have declined to appear at a hearing on Wednesday on ride-hailing industry issues, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives panel said, urging them to reconsider.

"That is unacceptable," Representative Peter DeFazio told the company's chief executives in letters dated Monday.

DeFazio said the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held numerous conversations with the companies' staff over the last few weeks, and "strongly urged" the companies to take part in the hearing.

Instead, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Lyft CEO Logan Green suggested that the committee "invite third party industry associations to generally talk about technology innovation in transportation," DeFazio said.

Lyft did not immediately provide a comment. An Uber spokeswoman confirmed receipt of the letter but did not comment further.

DeFazio said he intended "to pursue legislative solutions to address numerous issues plaguing the ride hailing industry, many of which will be raised at this hearing."

"If you do not send a representative to testify at the hearing, you leave the committee little choice but to make these policy decisions without your input," he told the CEOs.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Richard Chang)