Sponsors (9)
The bill reduces regulatory and recordkeeping burdens for livestock haulers and speeds time-sensitive animal transport, but it increases road safety risks and reduces electronic oversight and parity between carriers by widening exemptions to HOS/ELD rules.
Livestock haulers, farmers, and small agricultural businesses face reduced compliance costs and administrative burdens because drivers transporting defined livestock are exempted from federal hours-of-service (HOS) and electronic logging device (ELD) rules.
Farmers, rural communities, and animal handlers can get faster, more flexible time-sensitive pickups and deliveries of livestock because drivers are not constrained by HOS/ELD limits while collecting or returning with animals.
Operators hauling insects, aquatic animals, and other narrowly defined livestock have a lower recordkeeping burden because the ELD requirement is waived for these defined loads.
Drivers and other road users face higher safety risks because exempting HOS and ELD rules can allow longer driving periods without mandated rest, increasing the risk of fatigue-related crashes.
Broadening the exemption to include insects and aquatic animals could expand the number of exempt trips, increasing aggregate road safety risks and reducing transparency about driver hours and operations.
Law enforcement, crash investigators, and safety regulators will have less reliable electronic driving records for crashes and enforcement actions involving exempted livestock haulers, complicating investigations and oversight.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Exempts commercial vehicles hauling livestock (including insects and live aquatic animals) and related unladen trips from federal hours-of-service and ELD requirements.
Exempts commercial motor vehicles that transport livestock (broadly defined to include farm animals, insects, and live aquatic animals) and their drivers from federal hours-of-service rules and from the electronic logging device requirement. The exemption also covers empty livestock-hauling vehicles when they are picking up animals or returning from a delivery. The change narrows federal driving-time and logging obligations for livestock haulers, reducing recordkeeping and potential penalties for those trips but also removing a federal safety rule that limits driver hours and mandates electronic logs.
Introduced July 17, 2025 by Jeff Hurd · Last progress July 17, 2025