SAFE Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill addresses motor carriers that reappear under new identities to avoid safety orders, penalties, bad compliance histories, or insurance consequences. GAO must report within one year on the prevalence and effects of chameleon carriers, including fatalities, serious injuries, property damage, evasion tactics, DOT enforcement capabilities, insurance practices, and regulatory gaps. FMCSA must develop, test, and implement an automated tool that flags substantial continuity between entities, insurance lapses, common ownership, addresses, equipment, drivers, assets, operations, advertising, and other indicators. The tool may support decisions but cannot make the final registration decision, and denied applicants get notice, a 30-day correction window, and redetermination. DOT OIG must audit the tool two years after implementation.
Who Benefits and How
Road users, compliant motor carriers, insurers, FMCSA registration personnel, and state enforcement agencies benefit from better detection of carriers attempting to evade safety enforcement. Congress receives data on crash harms, property damage, enforcement gaps, and tool performance.
Who Bears the Burden and How
FMCSA must build the tool, negotiate federal and state data-sharing MOUs, protect data, retain human final decision-making, run an appeals process, brief Congress, and support a DOT OIG effectiveness audit. Chameleon carriers and affiliated brokers, freight forwarders, intermodal equipment providers, officers, and agents face greater registration scrutiny.
Key Provisions
- Requires GAO to report on the prevalence, harms, evasion tactics, and enforcement gaps tied to chameleon carriers.
- Directs FMCSA to develop, test, and implement an automated decision-support tool for DOT-number applications.
- Requires data-sharing memoranda with relevant federal agencies and state agencies to support the tool.
- Establishes notice, correction, redetermination, privacy, and DOT OIG audit safeguards around the tool.
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
Requires GAO to study chameleon motor carriers and requires FMCSA to build a nonfinal automated decision-support tool to flag evasion in DOT-number registration applications.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Public Safety, Technology Oversight
Primary Purpose
Requires GAO to study chameleon motor carriers and requires FMCSA to build a nonfinal automated decision-support tool to flag evasion in DOT-number registration applications.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Road users
- Compliant motor carriers
- FMCSA registration personnel
- Motor carrier insurers
Identified Costs
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- Chameleon motor carriers
- DOT OIG
- State motor vehicle agencies
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Introduced in House
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Congressional transportation committees, DOT OIG, FMCSA registration personnel
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Congressional transportation committees, FMCSA registration personnel
Negative-direction: DOT OIG, Government Accountability Office
Applicant motor carriers, Chameleon motor carriers, Compliant motor carriers
Positive-direction: Compliant motor carriers, Road users
Negative-direction: Applicant motor carriers, Chameleon motor carriers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "administrator"
- → Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
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