Sponsors (5)
Official title: To amend title 49, United States Code, to prohibit liability at common law for failure to manufacture or equip a motor vehicle to an extent that exceeds applicable motor vehicle safety standards.
Introduced August 6, 2026 by Mike Flood · Last progress August 6, 2026
The bill increases federal uniformity and lowers legal and compliance burdens for vehicle manufacturers (which can preserve jobs and reduce costs) while narrowing state tort remedies and weakening market incentives that encourage manufacturers to exceed minimum federal safety standards, potentially shifting costs to injured consumers and insurers.
Drivers and vehicle owners: Get consistent, nationwide motor vehicle safety rules so there is less state-to-state confusion about which standards apply.
Automakers, distributors, and dealers: Face clearer, uniform federal standards that reduce legal exposure and regulatory uncertainty across states, lowering compliance and litigation costs.
Workers and consumers: Reduced industry compliance and litigation costs may help preserve manufacturing and distribution jobs and could modestly lower vehicle prices for buyers.
Injured consumers and plaintiffs: May lose the ability to pursue state common-law suits that go beyond federal standards, narrowing legal remedies for people harmed by vehicle defects.
Drivers, vehicle owners, and workers: Weakening the linkage between liability and safety performance reduces manufacturers' incentives to exceed federal minimums, risking slower or fewer long-term safety improvements.
Injured parties, insurers, and taxpayers: Shifting or limiting liability could move costs from manufacturers to victims and insurance systems, potentially raising insurance premiums and reducing compensation for some injured people.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Affirmatively exempts specified parties from liability for failing to exceed federal motor vehicle safety standards and adds new preemption-related text to 49 U.S.C. § 30103(e).
Makes federal motor vehicle safety standards the exclusive measure for certain claims by requiring that parties be exempt from liability for failing to exceed those standards. It changes existing law from saying federal standards "do not exempt" defendants to a positive rule that they "shall exempt" specified parties, and adds additional (unspecified in the excerpt) language to the statute. The bill's stated goals are to create a uniform national rule for vehicle safety regulation and to reduce what it describes as an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce caused by state common-law suits that seek to require safety measures beyond federal standards.