Regulatory and Legislative Update - March 2025

Contents

Regulation and Enforcement

• Comments on broker transparency proposal are due March 20
• Adrienne Camire named FMCSA acting administrator
• Senate confirms Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary
• EPA plans to reverse electric vehicle mandate, reconsider NOx rule
• CVSA schedules International Roadcheck for May 13-15

Legislation

• Senate panel holds hearing on cargo fraud and theft

Courts

• Carrier sues TQL for refusing FMCSA dictate over disclosure

Advocacy and Comment

Regulation and Enforcement

Comments on broker transparency proposal are due March 20

As discussed last month, FMCSA under the Trump administration has signaled that it is inclined to pursue the broker transparency proceeding launched late in the Biden administration. Although virtually all other regulatory activity has been halted pending review, FMCSA reopened the comment period that initially ended on January 21. Comments are now due March 20.

For the Federal Register notice extending the comment period, visit https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2025-02707. For the NPRM and comments submitted already, visit https://www.regulations.gov/document/FMCSA-2023-0257-0001.

Adrienne Camire named FMCSA acting administrator

After being designated previously as senior advisor to the FMCSA administrator, Adrienne Camire has been appointed acting administrator of the agency. Camire previously served as chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration during President Trump’s first term. Previously, she was as an adjunct professor at New England Law in Boston and worked in banking for about 15 years.

According to the FMCSA website, Sue Lawless remains executive director and chief safety officer of FMCSA, a role she has filled since August 2023. Lawless previously was director for FMCSA’s Office of Motor Carrier, Driver, and Vehicle Safety Standards Division.

Senate confirms Chavez-DeRemer as Labor secretary

The Senate on March 10 confirmed by a 67-32 vote the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be secretary of the Department of Labor (DOL). Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination had raised eyebrows in the business community because she had been one of only three Republicans in the last Congress to co-sponsor the pro-union Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Among the many elements of the PRO Act was a restrictive ABC test for worker classification similar to the one in California’s AB 5 law.

In her prepared statement before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, and Pensions, Chavez-DeRemer acknowledged that “there has been a lot of conversation about my support of the PRO Act.” She continued:

“Like President Trump, I believe our labor laws need to be updated and modernized to reflect today’s workforce and business environment. As a member of Congress, the PRO Act was the bill to have those conversations – conversations that mattered deeply to the people of Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. I recognize that the bill is imperfect, and I am no longer a lawmaker. If confirmed, my job will be to implement President Trump’s policy vision, and my guiding principle will be President Trump’s guiding principle: ensuring a level playing field for businesses, unions, and most importantly, the American worker. I also know that we will not always agree, but I promise there will never be surprises. My door will always be open, and I will never put my thumb on the scale.”

Chavez-DeRemer had served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives before being defeated in her reelection bid in November. In the House, her committee assignments had included Transportation and Infrastructure. Previously, Chavez-DeRemer was mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon, and founded several medical clinics in the Pacific Northwest with her husband.

EPA plans to reverse electric vehicle push, reconsider NOx rule

Continuing along an expected path based on campaign promises and early actions by President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency announced March 12 that it will reconsider the phase 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions regulations on heavy-duty trucks finalized during the Biden administration. Although that regulation technically did not require electric trucks, the GHG emissions standards it imposes on truck manufacturers effectively requires significant adoption of electric battery and/or hydrogen fuel cell trucks by early in the next decade.

EPA’s December 2022 regulation on commercial trucks is about reducing oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and other pollutants and not GHGs, but EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin noted that the NOx rule, which is scheduled to take effect in 2027, is part of “the Biden EPA’s problematic Clean Trucks Plan” that would impose significant costs and would be reevaluated. For sleeper cab Class 8 trucks, the GHG phase 3 rule would not take effect for several years, but many carriers had already built equipment strategies around the 2027 NOx rule, which by many accounts would add 10% to 20% to the cost of a Class 8 tractor. EPA would not appear to have time to reverse the NOx rule using normal procedures, so the process is unclear.

EPA’s latest action follows an earlier announcement that the agency would be transmitting to Congress for its review the Biden EPA’s actions granting waivers under the Clean Air Act that allowed the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to implement its own emissions standards on commercial vehicles as well as passenger cars. (For details, see the February 2025 Regulatory Update.)

CVSA schedules International Roadcheck for May 13-15

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has scheduled its annual International Roadcheck roadside inspection event for May 13-15. During International Roadcheck, inspectors will primarily conduct the North American Standard Level I Inspection, a 37-step procedure that includes an examination of driver operating requirements and vehicle mechanical fitness. Although inspectors will record many different violations as usual, CVSA each year chooses one driver-related and one vehicle-related category as a special focus. This year's driver-related focus will be hours-of-service regulations. The equipment focus will be tires.

Legislation

Senate panel holds hearing on cargo fraud and theft

A subcommittee of the Senate Committee, Science, and Transportation Committee on February 27 held a hearing to address crimes in the supply chain, including brokering scams, fraudulent carriers, and other forms of cargo theft and fraud. In addition to testimony from a railroad and a shipper, the subcommittee on surface transportation heard testimony from (1) Adam Blanchard, principal and CEO, for Tanager Logistics and Double Diamond Transport of San Antonio, Texas, speaking on behalf of the American Trucking Associations; and (2) Lewie Pugh, executive VP of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

In addition to the subcommittee’s leaders – Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana), chairman of the subcommittee, and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), ranking Democrat – one of only two committee members attending the hearing was Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska). Fischer is a principal sponsor of legislation (S. 337) to clarify FMCA’s authority to enforce commercial regulations and to require the agency to ensure that regulated entities have physical principal places of business before receiving authority. The witnesses representing OOIDA and ATA cited support for S. 337 as a step toward addressing the situation.

For a link to the hearing recording and to prepared statements of the witnesses, visit https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/grand-theft-cargo-examining-a-costly-threat-to-consumers-and-the-u-s-supply-chain_2_2. The hearing begins at the 36:30 mark.

Courts

Carrier sues TQL for refusing FMCSA dictate over disclosure

Pink Cheetah Express LLC, a single-truck Kissimmee, Florida-based exempt and intrastate for-hire operation, in late February filed a complaint in the U.S. District for the District of Columbia seeking an order that Total Quality Logistics turn over to the carrier records of 14 transactions that the carrier says it is entitled to by virtue of a November 30, 2023, directive from an FMCSA official.

The carrier alleged that after hauling an interstate spot truckload of ice cream in January 2023 – the carrier held interstate motor carrier authority at the time – it filed a request for transactional records with TQL citing 49 CFR 371.3. According to the carrier, TQL refused on the basis of its standard spot market contract requiring carriers to waive their right to disclosure.

Pink Cheetah Express filed a complaint directly with DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg on October 31, 2023, and on November 30, 2023, a transportation specialist in FMCSA’s commercial enforcement division directed TQL in an email to remove the non-disclosure language in its contract, saying that it “may be a violation of § 14906,” according to an exhibit in Pink Cheetah Express’ court filing. The statute referenced – 49 U.S. Code § 14906 – proscribes penalties for evading regulations concerning carriers and brokers. The email further directed TQL to ensure compliance with the following regulation and provide transaction records to any carrier when requested.

The carrier said that TQL subsequently refused to provide the record for the January 2023 or for various other loads for which Pink Cheetah Express sought details. The carrier said it asked FMCSA for further intervention but did not receive it, saying it interprets the inaction to FMCSA’s apparent position that it is free to pursue a private right of action. (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; Case No. 1:2025cv00552)

Advocacy and Comment

This month’s Regulatory and Legislative Update has a most interesting topic, that is the attempt by the FMCSA to reopen the transparency rulemaking and consider TQL’s attempt to obtain a waiver from Federal Regulations to permit state law contracts to trump federal statutes. Our advocacy coalition will be commenting on this matter on Thursday. First, it is surprising that this issue got this level of attention while major issues like the safety fitness determination and a comprehensive attack on systemic fraud remains unaddressed.

A strong case will be made that the petition for reopening is not supported by the “logical outgrowth” test for when an agency must publish a new NPRM before reopening an APA docket. Also, the challenge will be made whether the waiver statute even applies to brokers.

Our response will include mention of the problems with draconian pre-conditions in 3PL contracts which on their face suggest that unilateral offsets, first-in-first-out payments, and other practices of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” are systemic problems that affect carriers’ and factors’ rights.