Who holds the wheel on trucking policy after the midterms?

Democrats’ Nov. 3 takeover of both chambers of Congress during the midterm elections puts transportation policy in new hands, but the outgoing lawmakers still face a crowded trucking agenda. The party won at least 250 House seats and at least 54 Senate seats. When lawmakers return Nov. 9 for the lame-duck session, unfinished business includes highway funding, legislation making it easier for veterans to enter trucking, and reauthorization of a federal program that funds the replacement or retrofitting of older diesel trucks and engines. The outlook for trucking policy under new leadership in 2027 remains uncertain. How lawmakers who were expected to win faredMost House Republicans and Democrats influential to trucking who were expected to keep their seats have had their races called in their favor. They include Republican Reps. Mike Ezell (Mississippi); Vince Fong (California); David Joyce (Ohio); Darin LaHood (Illinois); and Michael Rulli (Ohio); and Democratic Reps. Valerie Foushee (North Carolina); Rick Larsen (Washington), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and Greg Stanton (Arizona). Larsen, who has supported the BUILD America 250 Act, may be the next chair of the House T&I Committee. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who serves on the Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure under the Environment and Public Works Committee, also won re-election. But other races remain uncalled. Rep. David Rouzer (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, is in a tight contest, with 49.9% of the vote to Democrat Kimberly Hardy’s 49.1%. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who serves on the Appropriations Committee, is also in a neck-and-neck…

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