119th Congress

Feb. 13, 2026 Updates

• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) reintroduced the Stop Underrides Act 2.0, directing NHTSA to finalize rules requiring side underride guards on new trailers and trucks. The bill excludes prior inspection mandates for existing fleets and calls for reestablishing USDOT’s Advisory Committee on Underride Protection.
  S. 3775 has five Democratic cosponsors and was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  H.R. 7354 has two Democratic cosponsors and was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
• Rep. Sykes (D-OH) introduced the Railroad Safety and Accountability Act. According to the office’s press release, the bill would codify the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) in order to protect “labor and public-interest representation after federal regulators moved to reduce their role in safety decision-making.” The RSAC was disbanded last year, but FRA recently took steps to reestablish the Committee for two years. H.R. 7338 does not have any cosponsors and was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
• On February 3, President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, ending the brief government shutdown for certain federal agencies, including USDOT. The measure passed the Senate by a 71-29 vote before being sent to the House for final passage by a 217-214 vote. The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) portion of the bill includes a total of $25.1 billion in discretionary funding for USDOT. Appropriators provided $145 million for FY26 BUILD grants in addition to the $1.5 billion provided by the IIJA; $200 million for FY26 INFRA grants (reserved for truck parking projects) in addition to the $1.5 billion provided by the IIJA; $137.4 million for FY26 CRISI grants in addition to the $1 billion provided by the IIJA; and $103.3 million for FY26 PIDP grants in addition to the $450 million provided by the IIJA. The bill also provides the Office of Multimodal Freight Infrastructure & Policy (Freight Office) with $5 million for salaries and expenses, of which $3 million is reserved for the FLOW program. As a reminder, the accompanying joint explanatory statement (linked here) included a provision directing USDOT to utilize existing resources within the Freight Office to coordinate with other federal agencies to address cargo theft.