Patrick and Barbara Kowalski Freight Brokers Safety Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill adds new sections 14917 and 14918 to title 49. A freight broker that contracts with a specified transportation company must pay a civil penalty equal to 10 percent of the contracted cargo value for the full contract. A specified transportation company is a paid cargo carrier that, in the prior five years, has three or more DOT violations or employs a driver with three or more DOT violations. The Secretary deposits penalties into the Highway Trust Fund and may use them without further appropriation for roadway safety projects. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may investigate a freight broker after a fatal crash by a contracted company and impose additional operating requirements when the broker acted with egregious disregard for safety.
Who Benefits and How
Road users, crash victims families, safety-compliant motor carriers, and the Highway Trust Fund benefit because brokers have financial incentives to screen unsafe carriers and penalty proceeds can fund safety infrastructure.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Freight brokers, unsafe motor carriers, FMCSA investigators, DOT enforcement staff, and brokers involved in fatal crashes must comply with violation-history screening, civil penalties, investigations, and additional operating requirements.
Key Provisions
- Creates a civil penalty equal to 10 percent of contracted cargo value for brokers that hire specified unsafe carriers.
- Defines specified transportation company by three or more DOT violations by the carrier or a driver in five years.
- Deposits penalties into the Highway Trust Fund for roadway safety projects.
- Authorizes FMCSA to investigate brokers after fatal crashes and impose added operating requirements for egregious disregard.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Penalizes freight brokers that contract with unsafe motor carriers and authorizes FMCSA investigations and additional broker operating requirements after fatal crashes involving contracted carriers.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Law Enforcement, Government, Taxpayers
Primary Purpose
Penalizes freight brokers that contract with unsafe motor carriers and authorizes FMCSA investigations and additional broker operating requirements after fatal crashes involving contracted carriers.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Road users
- Crash victims families
- Safety-compliant motor carriers
- Highway Trust Fund
Identified Costs
- Freight brokers
- Unsafe motor carriers
- FMCSA investigators
- DOT enforcement staff
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Moolenaar introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Freight brokers, Freight brokers involved in fatal crashes, Safety-compliant motor carriers
Positive-direction: Safety-compliant motor carriers
Negative-direction: Freight brokers, Freight brokers involved in fatal crashes, Unsafe motor carriers
DOT enforcement staff, FMCSA investigators, Highway Trust Fund
Positive-direction: Highway Trust Fund
Negative-direction: DOT enforcement staff, FMCSA investigators
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology