{"id":246,"date":"2026-06-10T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=246"},"modified":"2026-06-10T17:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:43:09","slug":"transportation-safety-technology-drawing-interest-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanindustryreview.com\/?p=246","title":{"rendered":"Transportation safety technology drawing interest in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

As advanced safety technologies reach new stages of development across the transportation sector, Congress has been grappling with how to legislate such innovations, trying to balance industry needs against calls to prevent tragic accidents.<\/p>\n

Read more Prior authorization bill now eligible for House fast track<\/a><\/p>\n

A subcommittee hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee took up the issue of transportation safety technology Tuesday as Congress works on vehicle, rail and aviation safety bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past decade, we\u2019ve seen a rise in innovative technologies that require us to reimagine how our transportation networks operate,\u201d Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., the chairman of the Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines and Safety Subcommittee, said in his opening remarks.<\/p>\n

He noted examples of recent innovations, including autonomous vehicles, train inspection portals that analyze images of trains for defects and repair needs and \u201cvehicle to everything\u201d, or V2X, technology that allows vehicles to receive data from and adjust for their surroundings. These technologies and others, which Young said \u201cwere only a pipedream a short time ago,\u201d offer the potential to increase transportation safety.<\/p>\n

Ranking member Gary Peters, D-Mich., agreed, saying, \u201cEvery year, 40,000 Americans die on our highways and nearly 1,000 die on our railways, and these aren\u2019t just numbers \u2014 they\u2019re families that will never be whole again. We must take action, and we know that technology is certainly part of that solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Young said, \u201cwe\u2019re often slow at the federal level when it comes to expanding proven technologies past the pilot program stage\u201d and development of these technologies requires flexibility in rules and legislation as well as certainty for the private sector. Stagnation of domestic development for these technologies could give foreign adversaries an advantage, he added, a concern mentioned\u00a0by his colleagues on the panel.<\/p>\n

Witnesses before the subcommittee included Association of American Railroads president and chief executive officer Ian Jefferies, American Trucking Associations president and CEO Chris Spear, ITS America president and CEO Laura Chace and Cole Scandaglia, deputy director for the department of political and legislative action for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The witnesses agreed broadly upon a need for congressional action to help regulate some of the new technologies coming to market in an effort to encourage innovation while upholding safety.<\/p>\n

The hearing was held against the backdrop of current work on a\u00a0five-year surface transportation reauthorization measure, which would include key safety provisions related to technologies for motor vehicles and rail carriers.<\/p>\n

Surface transportation reauthorization<\/h2>\n

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee marked up its highway bill last month, but the measure still needs input from Ways and Means before it can be brought to the floor.<\/p>\n

The Transportation panel approved the bill by a bipartisan 62-2 vote, but fireworks did erupt over a rail safety amendment introduced by Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas.<\/p>\n

The Nehls amendment largely mirrored another House bill containing language that had been authored by now-Vice President JD Vance in response to the East Palestine train derailment in 2023, when Vance was a senator from Ohio. The measure would require freight rail carriers to adopt new safety measures, including the addition of trackside \u201chot box\u201d detectors to monitor wheel-bearing temperatures.<\/p>\n

The amendment was adopted 54-11 even with strong opposition from some Republicans, including Chairman Sam Graves of Missouri, who said the measure\u2019s provisions would increase costs for freight rail companies and American consumers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether enough opposition exists in the rest of the House to affect the underlying bill\u2019s passage from the chamber, but the subject of Vance\u2019s \u201cRailway Safety Act\u201d did come up in the Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., asked Jefferies of the railroad industry group about\u00a0RSA requirements, including a mandate for\u00a0two-person crews on each train, and how they could effect the movement of energy products such as coal.<\/p>\n

Read more Unhappy independents will decide this election<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that leads to a bigger question about locking in current operating requirements without any evidence to prove that those requirements result in a higher safety outcome,\u201d Jefferies said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can\u2019t draw a direct line to a positive safety outcome, we shouldn\u2019t be doing things, and I think that\u2019s why so many different groups outside of railroads, such as the coal industry, such as the ag industry, have expressed serious concerns about some of these proposals,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Autonomous vehicle title?<\/h2>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s hearing, full committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said his panel was \u201chard at work\u201d on\u00a0moving a surface transportation measure\u00a0\u201cthis year.\u201d A Senate bill has not yet been released.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the important elements of that bill, I hope, will be an AV title,\u201d Cruz said, referring to autonomous vehicles. \u201cI think AV is probably the most important automotive trucking innovation that we are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz\u00a0said there had been initial discussions about focusing such a title on automobiles, rather than trucks, but that he\u2019d heard the Teamsters were advocating for trucks to be included, drawing agreement from\u00a0Scandaglia.<\/p>\n

The House bill includes a section on autonomous commercial vehicles that would require the Transportation Department to develop a \u201cperformance-based safety standard\u201d for commercial vehicles with AV technology. Those provisions could be expanded in the Senate, where Cruz\u2019s committee has jurisdiction over the vehicle and rail safety elements.<\/p>\n

Members of the committee have expressed a desire to use the surface transportation bill to codify a national framework for autonomous passenger vehicles, which are currently regulated through a patchwork of state laws.<\/p>\n

Those calls were echoed Tuesday by Sen. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n, D-N.M., who delivered passionate remarks about the potential of autonomous vehicles as well as\u00a0other technologies to help prevent drunk-driving accidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the early 1990s, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver less than half a mile from my house, and I walked away from the damn thing. Not all my constituents can say that,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said. \u201cIt might make things a little more expensive to purchase a vehicle, but what happens if there\u2019s technology in the car that saves your kid, saves your mom or dad, saves your brother or sister. We can do that in America today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n also took aim at an amendment adopted\u00a033-26 during a House Appropriations Committee markup last week of the\u00a0fiscal 2027 Transportation-HUD spending bill. The amendment, offered by Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, would prohibit funding for \u201ckill-switch\u201d technology that can prevent a car from operating if it detects the driver is impaired. Funding for the technology was authorized as part of the 2021 infrastructure law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During an almost hourlong debate, Cloud and his supporters argued that the mandated use of such technology\u00a0could violate Americans\u2019 privacy and limit their use of their vehicles.\u00a0Luj\u00e1n said Tuesday the issue was not about privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what this is about. Let\u2019s find a way in America where we can drive innovation and save people\u2019s lives. I don\u2019t know why this is so hard. I\u2019m beside myself this morning as we come together,\u201d Luj\u00e1n said. \u201cLet\u2019s find a way to do something, man. Let\u2019s save some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Rush to regulate AI divides Democrats in Congress<\/a><\/p>\n

Valerie Yurk and Mark Schoeff Jr. contributed to this report<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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