Congress exempts livestock trucks from federal driver-fatigue rules
H.R. 4500 — HELP Act · Filed by Jeff Hurd (R-CO) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill exempts trucks hauling livestock, insects, and aquatic animals from federal rules limiting how many hours drivers can work without rest and from requirements to use electronic logging devices (ELDs) that track driving time. The exemption applies whether the truck is loaded or empty, as long as it is transporting or returning from transporting these animals.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a blanket exemption from federal driver-safety rules (hours of service and electronic logging) for a specific industry segment. This is deregulation framed as an industry relief measure, not a public-safety or consumer-protection bill.
What the text implies
- Exemption applies to empty return trips, meaning compliance burden is eliminated even when no livestock is being transported, broadening the practical scope beyond active hauling.
- ELD exemption removes real-time tracking of driver location and hours, eliminating a key enforcement and accident-investigation tool for federal regulators and law enforcement.
- Hours-of-service exemption may enable drivers to work shifts that would violate federal limits for other commercial drivers, creating a two-tier safety standard on the same roads.
- Insects and aquatic animals are included in the definition, potentially extending the exemption far beyond traditional livestock to cover a wide range of commercial animal transport.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill removes federal safety guardrails designed to prevent driver fatigue and crashes. Hours-of-service rules and ELD requirements exist to protect drivers from exhaustion-related accidents and to protect the public from fatigued-driver collisions. Exempting an entire vehicle class from these rules shifts fatigue risk onto drivers themselves and onto other road users, with no offsetting public benefit.
Who stands to gain
- livestock hauling companies and owner-operators
- commercial animal transport firms
- agricultural logistics providers
Named in the bill
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Department of Transportation, 49 USC Chapter 311 (Motor Carrier Safety), 49 USC Chapter 315 (Motor Carrier Safety), 49 USC Section 31137 (Electronic Logging Devices), Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance Act of 1988
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 9 Republicans.
- Jul 17, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 17, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $720,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 164 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Jeff Hurd, the sponsor, reported $624,454 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Trucking Associations — $720,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,446 characters) on Sep 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,398 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-23.
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