A narrow legislative window for the trucking industry

The trucking industry is approaching a critical turning point in Washington. As the 119th Congress prepares to conclude its work, lawmakers have until noon on January 3, 2027, to pass any outstanding legislation through both chambers and secure presidential approval. Bills that fail to complete that process will expire, forcing their sponsors to start again in the next Congress.

The political landscape has also changed significantly following Tuesday’s election results. Democrats have secured control of both the House and the Senate, setting the stage for a different approach to transportation policy.

In the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Washington Representative Rick Larsen, currently the ranking Democrat, is expected to replace retiring Chairman Sam Graves. In the Senate, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell is positioned to take over the Commerce Committee chairmanship from Ted Cruz. That committee oversees the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on the Senate side.

North Carolina Representative David Rouzer, chairman of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee and author of Dalilah’s Law, was still awaiting the outcome of his election race as of November 4. Even if he retains his seat, he will lose his subcommittee leadership position under the new Democratic majority.

The legislative record of the past two Congresses illustrates how difficult it has been for trucking measures to gain traction. A September review identified 79 trucking-related bills introduced during that period. Only three became law, while 69 never advanced beyond committee.

One of the most significant enforcement changes affecting the industry did not originate in any of those 79 bills. Instead, Congress required the Department of Transportation (DOT), through a provision in the spending legislation that ended the February government shutdown, to treat failed English proficiency checks as an out-of-service violation.

That experience offers an important lesson for the next two months: standalone trucking legislation has struggled to advance, while provisions attached to must-pass spending measures have a considerably better chance.

December funding legislation: the industry's last immediate opportunity

Federal government operations and the national highway programme are currently funded through December 11 under the continuing resolution signed on September 2. This deadline represents the final major legislative vehicle available to lawmakers before the 119th Congress expires.

Truckload Carriers Association President Jim Mullen told FreightWaves on November 4 that he expects Congress to approve a relatively straightforward highway funding extension lasting into June. He also anticipates that lawmakers will leave comprehensive highway legislation to the next Congress.

That assessment appears realistic, although it creates uncertainty for several trucking priorities.

One major proposal facing expiration is the BUILD America 250 Act, H.R. 8870. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved the legislation by a 62-2 vote on May 22, but it has never received a full House vote.

The measure includes $750 million over five years for truck parking improvements. It would also instruct DOT to establish regulations prohibiting predatory lease-purchase programmes and require disclosures showing how many participating drivers ultimately become owners of their trucks.

Additional provisions target chameleon carriers and establish a rulemaking committee to examine minimum knowledge requirements for newly established motor carriers.

The legislation will expire on January 3 unless incorporated into another measure.

Mullen expects the truck parking funding to remain part of the next highway bill. The lease-purchase provisions are also likely to return, with Democrats potentially seeking stronger protections. The proposal to increase the minimum insurance requirement from $750,000 was removed from this year's legislation, but Mullen expects it to be reconsidered. A Democratic-led committee could give that issue renewed attention.

Another major proposal, Dalilah's Law, H.R. 5688, received approval from the same committee on March 18 in a 35-26 party-line vote. Despite that progress, it has remained awaiting a House floor vote. Its Senate counterpart, S. 3917, never received a hearing.

The legislation will also expire on January 3 and is unlikely to return in its current form.

Democrats raised objections to several provisions. Larsen described the English proficiency section as redundant in March, while other Democratic lawmakers argued that restrictions affecting non-domiciled commercial driver's licences could prevent DACA recipients from obtaining or retaining their driving credentials.

Mullen expects the next highway bill to approach non-domiciled drivers differently, potentially allowing DACA recipients to keep their credentials.

Outside legislation specifically targeting trucking, the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA), H.R. 2853, represents one of the strongest remaining opportunities for the freight sector.

The House approved the measure 348-60 on May 12, but it has remained in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would establish a federal coordination centre to combat organised cargo theft, creating a national mechanism for addressing criminal networks targeting freight.

Unlike some other proposals, CORCA does not impose new equipment requirements or change commercial driver's licence eligibility. Its bipartisan support makes it a realistic candidate for passage before January.

Most other pending trucking measures have little prospect of advancing. The Motor Carrier Safety Selection Standard Act, H.R. 5337, which would establish national requirements for evaluating carriers before assigning them freight, is expected to expire in committee for the second consecutive Congress.

This remains the case despite the Supreme Court's unanimous 9-0 decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, which sent negligent carrier-selection claims to juries.

The Truck Parking Safety Improvement Act will also expire, although its funding objectives may survive through highway legislation. Chameleon carrier proposals, under-21 driving measures, predatory leasing legislation and commercial driver's licence fraud bills that never received committee markups face the same outcome.

40 trucking bills face new political reality

There are 40 federal bills now being considered that deal directly with trucking. Only two have gone through committee: Dalilah’s Law and the BUILD America 250 Act.

All 40 will expire on Jan. 3 unless their provisions are included in December’s funding legislation.

Their prospects in the next Congress are quite different.

The most likely thing to stall is proposals to make people eligible for a commercial driver’s licence. This category includes various versions of Dalilah’s Law, Connor’s Law, the SAFE Driving Laws Act, the No CDLs for Illegals Act, the Secure Commercial Driver Licensing Act and several other related initiatives.

The English proficiency language in Connor’s Law was added to Dalilah’s Law. With the Democrats controlling the House, it is unlikely that the immigration-related provisions of these proposals will come back in their current form.

However, there may be brighter days ahead for fraud prevention and identity verification legislation, as these issues present opportunities for bipartisan agreement.

One proposal that should be looked at again is Barron’s Law, H.R. 10620, particularly its nonimmigration sections. It would slap a $25,000 fine on carriers who deliberately use an ineligible driver, prohibit registration of carriers whose operating authority has been revoked in the past three years, and impose a $25,000 fine for concealing business relationships or using successor companies to evade sanctions.

These provisions are aimed at chameleon carriers: operators that try to escape regulatory consequences by changing company identities and registrations.

Other proposals in this category include House and Senate versions of the SAFE Act, which focus on screening carrier registrations, the GHOSTRUCK Act and Senator Ashley Moody’s Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act.

The latter would create a federal criminal offense of intentionally causing a collision involving a commercial truck.

If lawmakers remove partisan provisions and focus on fraud prevention, these measures could be stronger candidates for reintroduction in January.

The political change may also be a boon to the driver compensation and workforce legislation.

The Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act already has bipartisan support from lawmakers. Julia Brownley’s Predatory Truck Leasing Prevention Act also mirrors lease-purchase protections already included in the highway bill.

Both proposals may come back with more co-sponsors.

In contrast, laws that would allow drivers under 21 to drive in more situations will probably continue to be stuck between long-standing disagreements between the American Trucking Associations (ATA) and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

“It’s a tougher environment for equipment and liability legislation.” It's unlikely that proposals to roll back emissions requirements will be very popular in the incoming Congress.

The Uniform Vehicle Safety Standards Act and the carrier selection standard proposal also could face a tough time because both would restrict some lawsuits against the trucking industry. Nor is expected to advance under Democratic majority.

Why executive decisions are not enough to guarantee lasting safety improvements

Beyond the fate of individual bills, the industry faces a broader question: how durable are the regulatory changes introduced during the past 18 months?

Many of the most significant developments affecting trucking safety have resulted from executive decisions, agency guidance and administrative rules rather than permanent legislation.

That distinction matters because agency policies can be reversed by a future administration or overturned through court proceedings.

English proficiency enforcement provides a clear example.

The requirement has existed for decades under 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2). However, an FMCSA policy memorandum issued in 2016 instructed inspectors not to place drivers out of service for failing the English proficiency requirement.

An executive order in April 2025, followed by a new agency memorandum, reversed that approach, with the new enforcement policy taking effect on June 25, 2025.

By August, DOT reported that inspectors had issued more than 26,000 out-of-service orders involving English proficiency violations.

The change was substantial, but its initial implementation relied on agency guidance. One memorandum had effectively suspended enforcement, while another restored it.

The February spending legislation subsequently directed DOT to establish the out-of-service consequence through formal regulation. FMCSA proposed the rule on August 10, and the public comment period closed on October 10.

Until the regulation becomes final, one of the most important roadside enforcement changes in a decade remains dependent on administrative guidance.

Non-domiciled commercial driver's licences present another significant legal vulnerability.

FMCSA's final rule took effect on March 16 and is expected to make approximately 200,000 drivers ineligible as their existing licences expire.

In May, a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to suspend the rule. The court subsequently heard arguments on its merits on September 15, but no ruling had been issued as of early November.

When the court suspended an earlier interim version in November 2025, it highlighted figures from FMCSA's own data. Non-domiciled drivers represented approximately 5% of commercial driver's licence holders but accounted for around 0.2% of fatal crashes in the data cited by the agency.

Here the legal distinction between regulations and statutes is particularly relevant. An administrative rule must meet the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and demonstrate that the agency provided adequate justification for its decision. The constitutionality of a statute is to be tested by the power of Congress to enact it.

That’s why the trucking industry pushed for legislation like Dalilah’s Law: statutory protections have a different kind of resiliency than an administrative policy.

The same limitations apply to fraud enforcement.

In May 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14294 that discouraged criminal prosecution of regulatory offenses, instructing agencies to consider the harm caused before referring violations to the Department of Justice.

This approach may be reasonable when dealing with relatively minor administrative failures, such as a missed paperwork deadline.

However, the same logic becomes more complicated when addressing CDL training mills, falsified driver logs, previously shut-down carriers reopening under new identities and USDOT numbers being sold online.

FMCSA warned in March that it would revoke registrations involving the purchase, sale or lease of USDOT numbers outside legitimate transactions.

Nevertheless, losing a registration is not equivalent to facing criminal prosecution.

If Congress wants organised fraud networks to be treated as criminal enterprises, it must establish that framework through legislation, including clearly defined intent requirements that cannot easily be weakened by a future executive order.

Emissions enforcement demonstrates the same vulnerability from a different perspective.

On January 21, the Department of Justice announced that it would exercise its enforcement discretion to stop pursuing criminal charges under the Clean Air Act for tampering with onboard diagnostic systems.

CBS News reported that a memorandum from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also instructed prosecutors to abandon pending cases involving defeat devices.

The decision has particular relevance to truck operators who have experienced vehicle derating to 5 mph on the roadside because of a failed sensor costing approximately $300. The author considers the DOJ's decision justified in such circumstances.

However, the underlying legal restrictions have not disappeared. The Clean Air Act still prohibits tampering and retains its criminal penalties.

With a general federal statute of limitations of five years, a modification carried out in 2026 could remain prosecutable until 2031. A future Justice Department could also reverse the Blanche memorandum immediately upon taking office.

The distinction is clear: memoranda allow government agencies to act quickly, formal regulations provide greater stability, and statutes establish protections that remain in place beyond the administrations that introduced them.

At present, trucking safety continues to depend heavily on the first two mechanisms.

The measures lawmakers should prioritise before January 3

With the December 11 funding deadline approaching, the industry has a limited number of realistic opportunities to secure legislative progress.

The first priority should be passage of the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act in the Senate.

Having already received 348 votes in the House, the measure has demonstrated substantial bipartisan backing. Cargo theft is an issue that affects carriers, brokers and the wider supply chain, making it one of the few freight-related challenges that lawmakers from both parties broadly recognise.

The legislation would provide the industry with a federal coordination partner to confront organised criminal networks.

The second priority concerns funding for roadside enforcement.

Any December spending agreement should maintain Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grants to the states without reductions. Allowing state enforcement budgets to face another uncertain short-term funding arrangement would undermine efforts to improve road safety.

A third opportunity involves incorporating selected bipartisan provisions from Dalilah's Law into the December extension.

Rather than attempting to revive the entire bill, lawmakers could concentrate on two fraud-related measures that do not depend on immigration policy.

The first would prohibit foreign-based brokers and offshore dispatch services that contribute to double brokering and cargo theft. The second would address self-certification within the Training Provider Registry, preventing CDL training mills from certifying themselves.

Both measures appeared in the committee-approved version of the legislation and offer practical ways to address fraud.

Nevertheless, expectations should remain realistic.

Mullen anticipates a relatively clean highway extension without additional legislative provisions. A Congress that has just lost control of both chambers has limited political incentive to deliver major victories to the incoming majority or take difficult votes during its final weeks.

If these measures fail to advance, the industry will not face an immediate collapse. However, it will enter 2027 with a more challenging legislative agenda.

What changes when Congress returns in 2027?

The next comprehensive highway bill will be developed under the leadership of Rick Larsen in the House and Maria Cantwell in the Senate.

That change does not necessarily mean weaker safety legislation.

Larsen helped co-write the highway proposal that received committee approval by a 62-2 vote. The American Trucking Associations also told FreightWaves that the upcoming highway legislation represents an opportunity to demonstrate that divided government does not have to result in legislative dysfunction.

The main difference will be the balance of priorities.

Lease-purchase protections, minimum insurance requirements and driver safeguards are likely to receive greater attention. English proficiency provisions may receive less support, while non-domiciled licensing requirements could be approached through a different legislative framework.

For the trucking industry, one issue should take precedence over the others: identity verification.

Regulators and industry stakeholders need reliable answers to fundamental questions. Who owns the carrier? Who is actually operating the truck? Whose vehicle is transporting the freight? And did the broker properly verify the carrier before assigning the load?

These questions are central to tackling fraudulent operators.

Stronger chameleon carrier screening during registration, a genuine national carrier selection standard following the Montgomery decision, and independently verified training providers are among the measures most likely to survive a Democratic rewrite.

They are also practical reforms that could remove unsafe and dishonest operators from the road without becoming trapped in partisan disagreements.

A new Democratic House is likely to intensify transportation oversight

The political transition will also affect regulatory oversight.

With Democrats controlling the House, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs should expect hearings examining non-domiciled licensing, English proficiency enforcement and federal funding disputes involving individual states.

The administration's decision to withhold approximately $160 million from California and $73.5 million from New York over non-domiciled commercial driver's licences has already prompted lawsuits from both states.

Lawmakers are likely to demand detailed explanations.

Among the questions facing DOT and FMCSA will be how many of the approximately 200,000 affected drivers were actually unsafe, how many of the more than 26,000 English proficiency out-of-service orders resulted in crashes or criminal convictions, and why the agency informed the D.C. Circuit that it lacked data to compare safety outcomes.

Preparing credible answers before the new committee leadership takes office will be essential.

If the administration believes its policies are improving road safety, it will need to demonstrate that through crash statistics, roadside inspection results and measurable enforcement outcomes rather than public statements alone.

Agencies that arrive at congressional hearings with reliable evidence are better positioned to defend their programmes. Those relying primarily on talking points risk seeing their priorities weakened during subsequent appropriations negotiations.

What the FMCSA and state authorities must do in the next 60 days

The next few weeks are also a crucial time for federal regulators to firm up the legal foundations of their enforcement programs.

FMCSA’s short-term focus should be to turn existing guidance into regulations.

The agency needs to complete the chameleon carrier and registration initiatives announced in February and finalize the English proficiency out-of-service rule.

Formal regulations can still be challenged in court, but they afford a more solid foundation than policy memoranda, which are subject to withdrawal or supersession.

A Democratic Congress would also need the president’s signature to overturn such regulations through the Congressional Review Act, with the White House unchanged.

That makes the next two years particularly important in laying the groundwork for a more durable regulatory framework.

State authorities, in the meantime, need to improve consistency and data collection.

The enforcement of English proficiency should be uniform across all jurisdictions. If Virginia is using different standards than Texas, that could lead to serious problems as lawmakers start comparing results of enforcement.

States should therefore document every out-of-service order related to English proficiency and document the next steps. They should also review their non-domiciled licensing processes in advance of federal audits, and concentrate inspections in the areas with the highest crash rates.

Virginia is a particularly worrisome example.

The source in the original article cited the state has about one truck wreck for every 5 inspections during fiscal year 2025, the worst ratio in the country at a cost of $424 per inspection.

But in California, the ratio was 45 inspections per crash.

The source for the Virginia figures is not identified in the original article and thus needs to be verified before publication.

But the comparison does point to one important fact: federal legislation cannot fill holes in enforcement coverage at the state level. States need to decide where to place inspectors and ensure resources are focused on the areas where they can have the greatest impact.

The next 60 days could determine the direction of trucking policy

The most likely outcome before January 3 is a temporary extension of highway funding, with little additional trucking legislation reaching the finish line.

For the industry, however, the period should not be viewed as wasted time.

Several important safety improvements introduced over the past 18 months have produced tangible enforcement consequences. English proficiency requirements and stronger CDL integrity measures have helped remove drivers who should not have been operating commercial vehicles.

But many of these achievements were implemented rapidly through executive decisions and administrative measures. Their long-term future now depends on a different Congress, ongoing court proceedings and the ability of federal agencies to demonstrate that their policies are effective.

The trucking industry has spent two years pressing Washington for action. Much of the response came in the form of memoranda rather than permanent legislation.

Starting in January, industry representatives will have to make their case again to a new Congress. This time, they will need more than political arguments: they will need the inspection records, crash statistics and enforcement data necessary to demonstrate which policies work and why they deserve to remain in place.