Editor's note: This article reflects race calls as of the morning of November 4, 2026. The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats late on November 3 and the House early on November 4.
Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday, and FMCSA now faces a Congress that will scrutinize its agenda more closely. Starting in January, Democrats will chair the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, write the next highway bill and draft the spending bills that fund FMCSA. The administration keeps control of FMCSA's rulemaking, and the President keeps the veto. That sets up a divided government in which the highway bill, oversight hearings and spending negotiations become the main battlegrounds for trucking policy.
Here's what carriers should expect, issue by issue, and what to do now.
New Leadership in January
The new Congress convenes in early January 2027. The current Republican majorities run both chambers through the lame-duck session, and they face a December 11 deadline for both government funding and federal highway programs under the stopgap law signed September 2.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee gets a new chairman either way, because Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is retiring. Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) is in line for the gavel. Larsen has made safety the centerpiece of reauthorization. "We need to think about safety and saving lives," Larsen told an industry conference in May, according to Transport Topics.
In the Senate, Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is in line to chair the committee with jurisdiction over FMCSA. Cantwell is pressing Congress to restore the federal transportation funding states lost when the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act expired, according to The Bond Buyer.
The Highway Bill Becomes the Main Event
The highway bill is the single biggest trucking stake in this election. Federal surface transportation programs expired September 30 and now run on an extension through December 11. The House committee's long-term bill, the BUILD America 250 Act, cleared committee 62-2 in May and is waiting on a floor vote. House Speaker Mike Johnson wants it passed in the lame-duck session. If that slips, Democrats write the bill in both chambers next year.
The committee bill already carries a long list of trucking provisions, according to Overdrive:
A $750 million truck parking grant program
A required rule against predatory lease-purchase programs
Tighter ELD certification
Principal place of business and common-ownership disclosures aimed at fraudulent carriers
Broker officer qualifications
A federal safety framework for autonomous trucks
An extension of the under-21 Safe Driver Apprenticeship Program through 2031
That bipartisan core carries into a Democratic rewrite. What Democrats add is the bigger story, and minimum insurance tops the list. The last Democratic House passed a highway bill in July 2020, the Moving Forward Act, that raised the federal minimum for motor carriers from $750,000 to $2 million. The Senate never took it up. In April 2026, Reps. Chuy García (D-Ill.) and Derek Tran (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Fair Compensation for Truck Crash Victims Act to raise the minimum to $5 million and index it to inflation. FMCSA has said the data does not support an increase. With majorities in both chambers, Democrats can put a higher minimum and new safety equipment requirements in the 2027 highway bill and send it to the President.
FMCSA's Agenda Under the Microscope
FMCSA sets its own regulatory agenda, and it will keep moving. What changes is the level of scrutiny each item draws.
Deregulation and Hours of Service
A first wave of deregulatory rules took effect March 23, 2026, and more are on the agency's 2026 regulatory agenda. FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said in late October that the agency has "around nine rules" it will try to push out this year, according to Land Line, including Clearinghouse revisions, ELD revisions, safety fitness procedures and changes to the new entrant safety assurance process.
FMCSA's two hours-of-service pilot programs, one letting drivers pause the 14-hour window and one adding new split sleeper berth options, finished pre-testing this summer and are set for a full rollout in 2027. The agency runs these pilots under its own authority. Democratic committee leaders will demand the safety data behind them.
Safety Technology
The administration withdrew the heavy truck speed limiter proposal in July 2025, and FMCSA and NHTSA paused the 2023 automatic emergency braking proposal to develop a revised approach. Rulemaking stays with the agencies. Democrats will press these types of issues in hearings and through the highway bill, where any equipment mandate needs the President's signature.
Autonomous Trucks
DOT is clearing the way for driverless trucks. On October 9, FMCSA granted Aurora a five-year exemption to use cab-mounted warning beacons in place of warning triangles after a stop, and NHTSA has announced plans to revise vehicle safety standards written for human drivers. The House committee bill sets a federal safety framework for autonomous trucks and requires a human operator for placarded hazmat loads. With labor groups and drivers pressing Congress to keep humans in the cab, Democratic committees in both chambers will push for tighter conditions on driverless operations.
Brokers and Freight Fraud
Freight fraud is common ground. FMCSA sent its new broker transparency proposal to the White House for review on August 27, 2026, and bills targeting chameleon carriers and cargo theft have sponsors from both parties. Expect this to be one area where Congress and the administration work together.
ELP Enforcement and Non-Domiciled CDLs
These are the two FMCSA actions that will draw the most fire from congressional Democrats, because both sit on top of immigration policy. Both remain in full effect.
English language proficiency. The requirement lives at 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2). CVSA restored ELP violations to the out-of-service criteria effective June 25, 2025, and FMCSA rescinded its 2016 policy that had kept those drivers on the road. On August 10, 2026, FMCSA proposed to codify ELP as an out-of-service violation (91 Fed. Reg. 51422). Comments closed October 9, and a final rule is pending. Roadside out-of-service orders continue, and Trucksafe's ELP dashboard tracks them.
Non-domiciled CDLs. FMCSA's final rule (91 Fed. Reg. 7044) took effect March 16, 2026, and limits eligibility to H-2A, H-2B and E-2 visa holders. The D.C. Circuit is deciding the challenge in Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA, No. 26-1032. The court denied a stay in May and heard argument September 15.
The Democratic position. During the markup of Dalilah's Law (H.R. 5688), which would write ELP out-of-service enforcement and stricter CDL eligibility into statute, Larsen said ELP has "a legitimate nexus to safety" and called the standard "inherently subjective," according to Overdrive. Democrats offered amendments to create an appeal process for ELP out-of-service orders and to restore CDL eligibility for refugees, DACA recipients and others with work authorization. The committee rejected them on a 35-26 party-line vote in March. Dalilah's Law now needs a floor vote and Senate passage in the lame-duck session, or it expires with this Congress.
That record tells carriers where the fight is headed. Democrats accept ELP as a safety requirement and will target how it is enforced at the roadside. The sharper battle is over who qualifies for a CDL.
CSA and SMS: Who Controls What
FMCSA controls the SMS methodology. Congress controls what the public sees. FMCSA Chief Safety Officer Steve Dowling said October 28 that the agency will put new SMS proposals out for industry comment, and FMCSA can finalize those changes under its own authority.
The public display is governed by the FAST Act (Pub. L. 114-94). Section 5221 required a National Academies study of CSA, an FMCSA corrective action plan and a DOT Inspector General review of that plan, completed in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Section 5223 keeps alerts and BASIC percentiles off the public website, and out of safety fitness determinations, until the Inspector General certifies that the study's deficiencies and related issues have been addressed. That certification is still outstanding, so property carriers' percentiles remain hidden from the public today. Democratic committees in both chambers can press FMCSA and the Inspector General on where certification stands and rewrite that gate in the highway bill.
The Tools Congressional Democrats Will Use
Oversight Hearings and Document Requests
Carriers will see the biggest change here. The majority sets the hearing schedule, calls agency leaders to testify and demands documents, with subpoena power behind those demands. Expect hearings on ELP enforcement and its consistency from state to state, the data behind the non-domiciled CDL rule, FMCSA's withholding of millions of dollars in Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) funding from California in 2025, the hours-of-service pilots and the safety rules the administration pulled back.
GAO and Inspector General Reviews
Committee chairs can direct requests to the Government Accountability Office and the DOT Inspector General to audit FMCSA programs. Those reviews take months, and their findings set the record for the next round of hearings and legislation.
Appropriations Riders
Congress controls FMCSA's budget, and a spending bill can bar the agency from funding specific actions. Congress has done it before. In December 2014, it used the FY2015 spending law to suspend enforcement of the 34-hour restart provisions in the hours-of-service rule. Democrats now control the spending committees in both chambers and will use riders on ELP enforcement practices, MCSAP grant withholding and FMCSA staffing as leverage in funding negotiations with the White House.
Senate Confirmations
The Senate majority controls confirmations for future DOT and FMCSA nominees and for federal judges. Any new FMCSA administrator or DOT leadership pick now goes through a Democratic Commerce Committee, and Democrats will use those hearings to press nominees on the agency's agenda.
Every bill and rider still needs the President's signature, so Congress's strongest tools are oversight, confirmations and its leverage in must-pass bills.
What Fleets Should Do Now
Run your program to the rules in effect today. Your obligations change only through a final rule, a statute or a court order.
Keep ELP and CDL eligibility in your hiring process. Assess ELP before you hire, document how you assess it, and verify every non-domiciled CDL holder against the current rule. Our Driver Qualification Mini Course covers the Part 391 requirements behind both.
Review your insurance limits. Your broker and shipper contracts and your own exposure already set the real floor for your coverage, and the federal minimum is back on the table.
Manage your CSA scores under the current methodology. The seven-BASIC system drives your scores and your risk of intervention today.
Weigh in. Comment periods and committee markups are where carriers shape what comes next.
What to Watch
Committee leadership in both chambers: who chairs House Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Commerce, and which trucking issues they take up first
The lame-duck session: the December 11 funding and highway deadline, the BUILD America 250 Act and any floor vote on Dalilah's Law
FMCSA's rulemaking pipeline: broker transparency, SMS, Clearinghouse, ELD, safety fitness, new entrant and the final ELP out-of-service rule
A D.C. Circuit ruling in Rivera Lujan v. FMCSA
The first oversight hearings of the new Congress
Trucksafe will continue monitoring the new Congress and FMCSA's agenda and update you as things develop. If you want your team current on the requirements in force today and ready for what comes next, enroll in DOT Compliance for Safety Managers through Trucksafe Academy.
