The highway bill just slipped to December

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • September 4, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

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The Big Thing

The Shutdown Got Averted. Your Wins Are Still Stuck.

On Tuesday the House voted 370 to 48 to keep the lights on. The measure extends federal surface transportation programs to December 11, which matters to you because the current highway bill was set to run out September 30. No lapse, no frozen road projects, no shutdown of the programs that pay for the highways you run. That part is real, and it is good.

Here is the catch. The extension is a stopgap, not the bill. It buys time. It does not deliver a single one of the things drivers have been asking Congress to do.

Those live in a different bill, the BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year, $580 billion package the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced back in May. It is the most driver-friendly highway bill in years, and it carries three provisions that would change your day.

First, restroom access. The bill folds in the Trucker Bathroom Access Act, which says that if a shipper or receiver has a restroom for its own people, it has to let the driver making the pickup or delivery use it too. No new construction required. Just basic dignity, written into law.

Second, a crackdown on predatory lease-purchase deals. Within two years of the bill passing, the Transportation Secretary would have to write rules banning the lease-to-own traps that take a driver's paycheck and leave him with nothing. That follows the federal Truck Leasing Task Force's own recommendation.

Third, parking. The bill puts $150 million a year into truck parking for five straight years, $750 million in all, pointed at the exact shortage you fight every night.

So why is none of it law yet? Because BUILD America 250 has not moved since it cleared committee in May, and the Senate never wrote a bill of its own. That is why Congress had to reach for an extension instead. And the calendar is not friendly. October is midterm campaigning, November is the election, and that leaves a thin lame-duck window before December 11. If the deal is not done by then, the most likely outcome is another extension, not a finished bill.

What this means for you. The wins are written down, and the committee vote was bipartisan. But written down is not signed, and the people carrying it are running low on time. Sam Graves, the retiring chairman who championed it, says he is still committed. OOIDA, which wrote a lot of these provisions, says it is still pushing. Watch December 11. Until a five-year bill actually passes, restroom access, the lease-purchase ban, and that parking money are promises, not law.

Read more: Land Line | Transport Topics | Bloomberg Government

Mile Markers

Where the numbers landed this week.

Diesel: $5.599/gal, down 5.3 cents on the week. That snaps two straight weeks of roughly 20-cent jumps, and it still sits about $1.87 above where it was a year ago. (EIA)

Spot rates (all-in, national average): Van $2.89, Reefer $3.45, Flatbed $3.51 per mile. Reefer led the way on a jump in California produce lanes, while van and flatbed held about flat. All three are still running well above a year ago. (DAT)

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News

Missouri Breaks Ground on 255 New I-70 Parking Spaces. MoDOT held a groundbreaking on August 26 for Improve I-70: Truck Parking, a $33 million federally funded project that will more than double truck parking at the state's I-70 rest areas. It adds 255 public spaces across four existing sites: Concordia, Boonville, Mineola, and Wright City. Construction starts this fall and wraps in late 2028, so it is relief you will feel down the road, not tonight. Read more on The Trucker

FMCSA Moves to Lock In the English Proficiency Out-of-Service Rule. Since June 2025, failing an English language check at roadside can put a driver out of service. Now FMCSA has proposed to write that into the formal out-of-service criteria, and the public comment window is open through October 9. If you want a say in how the rule reads, that is your deadline. Read more on the Federal Register

Get Ahead of the Fall Freight Ramp. Freight usually firms up through the fall, and the last thing you want is a breakdown when the loads are finally moving. Heavy Duty Trucking's shop editors say the cheap insurance is the boring stuff: brakes, tires, cooling system, batteries, and lights, checked now before the weather turns. Twenty minutes this week beats a roadside repair in October. Read more on Heavy Duty Trucking

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