Trucking’s $750M Parking Plan Faces a Congressional Rewrite

The BUILD America 250 Act would allocate $750 million over five years to expand truck-parking capacity, but the House highway bill carrying that plan has not become law. The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee approved the measure overwhelmingly in May, the outgoing Congress’s last trucking-related action.

The package exceeds 1,000 pages, and committee approval does not carry into the new Congress. Its provisions must be reintroduced, while Democratic control could add policy changes the Republican-led committee did not advance.

Rick Larsen of Washington, the committee’s current ranking member, will become chairman under the new Democratic majority. Missouri Rep. Sam Graves, the outgoing chair, will retire. The gavel changes hands; the $750 million parking proposal may yet survive the shuffle.

Nine committee members from both parties are leaving through retirement. Several other Republicans were defeated, left to run for another office, or still faced uncalled races as of Wednesday; no Democrats fell into those categories.

North Carolina Rep. David Rouzer remains the trucking industry’s focus. At publication, data showed a slim margin in his 7th District race, which neither the Associated Press nor another agency had called.

Even if he holds, the control shift removes his Highway and Transit subcommittee chairmanship. With Graves retiring, he could become the committee’s ranking member, an important ally for trucking.

On the Senate side, Ted Cruz of Texas will give the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee chair to Maria Cantwell of Washington, its current ranking member. Committee membership changed only slightly. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee left to become governor, while Dan Sullivan’s tight Alaska vote count remained unresolved, leaving his 2027 return uncertain.

Current funding under the existing highway bill expires December 11, putting a short-term extension on the lame-duck Congress’s desk.

What changes for carriers and owner-operators?

For carriers and owner-operators, the immediate change is procedural, not operational. Jim Mullen, president of the Truckload Carriers Association, expects the highway bill to wait until the incoming Congress is seated and current funding to be extended through June. “I would think it’d be a pretty clean extension. I wouldn’t think there’d be any sort of policy riders.”

The full rewrite may not resemble the version approved in May. Mullen expects the truck-parking provisions to make the cut, while other parts of the bill may acquire Democratic policy priorities. For fleets, parking support looks more secure than insurance, autonomous-vehicle policy or CDL rules.

The May text directs the Secretary of Transportation to lead an Autonomous Vehicle Accessibility Study, with the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies creating a framework for government oversight where necessary. Mullen described the provision as pro-autonomous rather than restrictive. He expects labor concerns could persuade Democrats to remove it, though he cannot be sure they will.

The bill also requires trucking companies using independent owner-operators under lease-purchase agreements to provide a form disclosing compensation levels, average weekly mileage and the number of drivers using the program to buy a truck at lease end. Those details have long been selling points. It also permits the Transportation Secretary to run a public-awareness campaign on standard lease-purchase programs.

The committee bill leaves mandatory insurance coverage at the current $750,000 minimum. An attempt to add a higher limit was stripped from legislation, and a separate 2020 effort also failed. Mullen expects a revised bill could bring the provision back.

The American Trucking Associations said the highway-bill work “is an opportunity to show that divided government doesn’t have to mean dysfunctional government.” It also said the current Congress still must complete bipartisan legislation targeting organized cargo theft and freight fraud.

One proposal drew considerable attention without leaving the committee. Dalilah’s Law passed the T&I panel in March after Rouzer introduced it, but a Senate companion never received a hearing at the corresponding committee.

The bill takes its name from Dalilah Coleman, a California girl seriously injured in a 2024 crash involving a truck driven by a person illegally in the United States. Democrats voted against it mostly over English-language-proficiency requirements for CDL holders. They also objected to provisions they said could prevent noncitizens with DACA status from ever obtaining a CDL.

Larsen said in March that the English-proficiency provision was redundant to other regulations, including tighter standards for non-domiciled CDL holders adopted earlier that year. The stricter rule now sits before a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where oral arguments took place in September.

Mullen expects a new highway bill to address non-domiciled drivers, but in a different form. He thinks a provision could allow noncitizens with DACA status to keep their credentials, while conceding the policy direction remains unsettled.

The near-term path points to continuity through June, followed by a slower committee fight. The $750 million parking program looks more secure than the insurance increase, autonomous-vehicle study and CDL provisions, which remain exposed to negotiation in the next Congress.