Congress sets English-proficiency bar for federal ride-share contracts
S. 3121 — UBER Act · Filed by Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) · Introduced Nov 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires that any ride-share or shared-mobility company (like Uber) working under federal contracts must ensure all their drivers can read and speak English well enough to communicate with the public and law enforcement, are at least 21, have valid driver's licenses, and pass a road test. Companies that fail to certify compliance lose federal contracts for 5 years. The bill includes an exception for deaf or hearing-impaired drivers who use American Sign Language.
Why we flagged it
The bill establishes English-proficiency and safety requirements for ride-share drivers on federal contracts. While framed as a safety measure, it functions primarily as a regulatory standard for federal procurement eligibility.
What the text implies
- The English-proficiency requirement may have disparate impact on immigrant and non-native-English-speaking drivers, potentially reducing labor supply and increasing costs for federal agencies.
- The 5-year debarment penalty is severe and may disproportionately harm smaller shared-mobility companies that cannot absorb compliance failures.
- The bill applies only to federal contracts, creating a two-tier system where federal agencies face stricter driver standards than private consumers, potentially fragmenting the gig-work market.
- No definition of 'sufficiently' for English proficiency is provided, creating ambiguity in enforcement and potential for inconsistent application across agencies.
Who it affects
The bill may improve safety and communication standards for federal contract work, benefiting passengers and public safety. However, it could reduce driver availability and increase costs for federal agencies, and the English-proficiency requirement may disproportionately exclude non-native speakers and immigrant drivers without clear evidence that current standards are inadequate.
Who stands to gain
- Large ride-share companies with established compliance infrastructure
- Driver-training and certification services
- Federal agencies (potential cost savings from reduced driver pool competition)
Named in the bill
Uber, Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), Shared-use mobility companies, Executive agencies, Federal contractors
Where it stands
- Nov 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Nov 6, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
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 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $80,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 18 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.
Tommy Tuberville, the sponsor, reported $-1,614 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Arc of the United States — $80,000 on 2 filings
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 full bill text on Jun 10, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 Dec 2025 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 2026-10-20.
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