H.R. 6531 — Bridges not Bumpers Act of 2025

This section establishes a working group under the Secretary of Transportation to recommend ways to improve public-private data sharing on bridge clearances and commercial motor vehicle (CMV) routes. Membership includes representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, state departments of transportation, trucking organizations, GPS navigation producers, law enforcement agencies, consumer rental vehicle companies, and Class I, II, and III railroads. The recommendations must (1) improve CMV-specific information and route signs on GPS tools; (2) address liability for inaccurate shared data; (3) enhance truck driver awareness of bridge strikes, potentially via commercial driver's license tests; (4) require rental companies to label vehicles with height and weight; (5) require rental companies to notify renters of vehicle height and warn them to heed road signs; and (6) identify public or private funding for GPS integration of such data. Not later than one year after the recommendations are issued, the Secretary must promulgate regulations to implement them. This section further grants civil liability immunity to GPS administrators for injuries from government-provided bridge, tunnel, or underpass clearance data.

This section expresses the sense of Congress that the Secretary, in coordination with the working group established under section 3, should conduct a national education campaign to prevent and raise awareness of bridge strikes by commercial motor vehicles targeted to (1) educational programs for commercial drivers, (2) independent operator businesses, and (3) motor carrier associations.

This section directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a national clearinghouse for bridge and tunnel clearance strikes that (1) serves as a centralized repository for data collection, management, and dissemination of best practices to prevent bridge strikes by commercial motor vehicles; and (2) is modeled after the prototype in the National Cooperative Highway Research Program publication titled “Guide for Preventing and Mitigating the Risk of Bridge and Tunnel Strikes by Motor Vehicles” (NCHRP 08–139). It authorizes $5 million for this purpose.

This section establishes a grant program administered by the Secretary to provide grants to eligible entities—including state departments of transportation, units of local government, metropolitan planning organizations, Class II and Class III railroads, and transportation safety organizations—for research using the clearinghouse established under section 4. The research must (1) identify roadway, bridge, and tunnel locations for potential infrastructure improvement projects to mitigate bridge and tunnel clearance strikes; (2) conduct basic, preliminary engineering tasks to analyze alternative bridge strike mitigation options and identify preferred mitigation alternative recommendations; and (3) assess the effectiveness of currently implemented and future countermeasures against bridge and tunnel clearance strikes and strategies and programs to reduce such strikes. In providing grants, the Secretary shall prioritize eligible entities located in states with a high incidence of bridge strikes, as determined by the Secretary. The section authorizes appropriations of $5 million for each of FY2026 through FY2030.

This section defines, for purposes of this Act, (1) “commercial motor vehicle” as having the meaning given the term in 49 U.S.C. §31132 (i.e., generally a self-propelled or towed vehicle used in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of at least 10,001 pounds, among other criteria); and (2) “covered rental vehicle” as a self-propelled or towed motor vehicle (except a truck tractor) used on public streets, roads, and highways that (A) has a gross vehicle weight rating of at least 5,700 pounds, (B) is rented without a driver for an initial term of less than four months, and (C) is part of a motor vehicle rental fleet of five or more vehicles.