U.S. freight brokers are mounting a fresh push for Congress to adopt a national standard for vetting motor carriers, backing new legislation introduced this week that would establish a uniform “safety fitness” baseline for shippers and intermediaries. The House bill, filed on September 11, 2025, by Rep. Pete Stauber (R‑Minn.), revives a long-running effort to clarify what due diligence looks like when brokers and shippers select carriers.
Stauber’s bill seeks to create a federal motor carrier selection standard and direct the U.S. Department of Transportation to modernize how it determines a trucking company’s fitness to operate. As outlined by prior iterations and sponsors in the last Congress, the framework centers on three basic checks: confirming DOT registration, ensuring minimum insurance coverage, and verifying that a carrier has not been deemed unfit or ordered to cease operations. Earlier versions also specified that these checks be completed within 45 days of the shipment date.
The Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), which represents truck brokers and 3PLs, has championed a national standard for years, arguing that today’s patchwork of practices invites confusion and litigation. Big brokers echo that stance. Following Stauber’s announcement, C.H. Robinson’s chief legal officer and TIA’s leadership praised the effort, saying a simple, federally defined checklist would improve safety and reduce ambiguity for supply chain partners.
The renewed legislative drive comes amid a widening split in federal courts over broker liability. In 2020, the Ninth Circuit allowed negligence claims against a broker to proceed under the “safety” exception to federal preemption, a ruling that opened brokers to potential state tort exposure after crashes. By contrast, the Eleventh Circuit in 2023 concluded such claims were preempted. This summer, the Sixth Circuit sided with plaintiffs in reversing a lower-court win for Total Quality Logistics, further deepening the circuit divide and adding pressure for a national standard.
Congress has tried before. In the 118th Congress, H.R. 915 advanced to the House calendar in November 2024 but ultimately stalled. The measure was paired with a Senate companion led by Sen. Deb Fischer (R‑Neb.) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R‑Idaho), who framed it as a common‑sense way to improve safety and provide clear guidance while FMCSA finishes an overdue revamp of its safety rating system.
That safety rating overhaul—known as a Safety Fitness Determination—has been in limbo since FMCSA withdrew a 2016 proposal in 2017 to await a National Academies review of the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program. With the rulemaking on ice, most carriers remain “unrated,” leaving brokers and shippers to rely on inconsistent proxies and internal policies to judge safety.
Broker groups say that vacuum fuels litigation risk and market confusion; small‑carrier advocates counter that any standard must avoid squeezing out the many safe carriers that lack a formal rating. The Owner‑Operator Independent Drivers Association has focused its recent policy firepower on tougher broker transparency and anti‑fraud measures, underscoring that not all stakeholders agree on the best path to safer, fairer markets—even if they share concerns about bad actors.
At the same time, Capitol Hill is also weighing bills to crack down on freight fraud and impose stricter registration rules—steps that would apply to brokers and carriers alike and that industry groups broadly support. Those proposals would give FMCSA more authority to penalize sham operations and require verifiable physical business locations, an attempt to stem double brokering and other scams that have proliferated in recent years.
For now, Stauber’s bill starts where previous efforts left off: it has been referred to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Whether it advances may hinge on how lawmakers balance safety, liability, and access to capacity as freight markets remain fragile. The last House version made it onto the Union Calendar in late 2024—a sign of momentum that nevertheless fell short of a floor vote.
Sources: Congress.gov, Office of Rep. Pete Stauber, FreightWaves
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