Congress·In Committee·H.R. 6884

Congress seeks 10% cargo-value penalties for freight brokers that hire trucking firms with repeat safety violations

Patrick and Barbara Kowalski Freight Brokers Safety Act

3 months ago·View on Congress.gov

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Key Points

Freight brokers could face a civil penalty if they hire a trucking company with a recent pattern of safety violations.
The penalty would equal 10% of the value of the cargo covered by the broker’s contract with that trucking company.
A trucking company would count as “unsafe” if, in the past 5 years, it had 3 or more Transportation Department violations, or it employs a driver with 3 or more such violations.
Money from these penalties would go into the Highway Trust Fund, and the Transportation Department could use it for safety-related road and infrastructure projects.
After a fatal crash involving a broker’s contracted carrier, federal truck-safety officials could investigate the broker and may impose extra operating requirements if the broker showed an extreme disregard for safety.

TransportationInfrastructureConsumer Protection

Impact Analysis

Personal Impact

How this policy affects specific groups of people

Negative Impacts(2)

Small Business Owner

Hurts

Gig Worker

Hurts

Mixed Impacts(2)

Farmer Rancher

Neutral

Chronic Illness

Neutral

Positive Impacts(1)

Child Tax Credit

Helps

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Dec 18, 2025House

Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Dec 18, 2025

Introduced in House

What Happens Next

Projected impacts based on AI analysis

Once the bill becomes law and DOT/FMCSA provides guidance on how the violation check will be applied

Freight brokers begin screening carriers and drivers more carefully for DOT violations

More vetting before loads are booked; some carriers may be avoided to reduce penalty risk, which can affect prices and delivery timing

After enactment, once enforcement begins

Civil penalties start being assessed for contracts with covered unsafe carriers

Brokers that use carriers meeting the 3-violation threshold could owe 10% of cargo value for the entire contract, creating strong pressure to change broker practices

After a fatal crash occurs involving a contracted carrier, and FMCSA opens a case

FMCSA investigates brokers after fatal crashes involving their contracted carriers

Brokers could face added scrutiny and possible extra operating requirements if found to have acted with egregious disregard for safety