By Dana Lee Cole
The trend in Washington over the last several Congresses has been that meaningful legislation rarely passes on its own. Of course, a resolution naming a Post Office or a bill addressing a local, non-controversial issue will win approval on their own. But more substantive, national policy issues tend to move and become law as part of comprehensive legislation. Tax is a good example. Hundreds of tax bills are introduced each Congress, but they are typically stuck in neutral unless there is a broader legislative vehicle that emerges which includes a tax title. The same is true for energy policy and a host of other issues including transportation. Next year, the current highway bill is up for reauthorization. This is the underlying statute that funds and authorizes our country’s surface transportation programs. This must-pass legislative vehicle presents an opportunity to finally make some progress on issues of importance to the hardwood industry, including truck weight reform.
As you know, we have been advocating for many years for enactment of reasonable gross vehicle weight reform on our nation’s highways. The arbitrary 80,000-pound weight limit for five axle rigs forces trucks to take less safe roads to their ultimate destination. For example, a logging truck in Georgia weighing 84,000 pounds may travel legally all day every day over state roads but is forbidden from accessing the interstate highway system. This means that this truck must travel on narrower two-lane roads traversing small towns, cross walks, and railroad crossings when a more direct route may be available on the interstate.
Thankfully, two Hardwood Federation-supported measures to address this problem have been introduced this Congress. One is the Safe Routes Act (H.R. 2166). Rep. Tony Wied (R-WI) reintroduced this bill which would allow trucks travelling at the maximum gross vehicle weight on state roads to access that state’s portion of the interstate for short distances. Georgia is not the only state that allows heavier rigs on its state-controlled highways. Several states have an 80,000-pound weight restriction but allow “tolerances” to exceed that weight for trucks carrying agricultural commodities, including timber.
The other bill is titled the FRESH Act or Freight Restriction Elimination for Safer Hauling Act of 2025 and is sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA). The bill would simply allow trucks hauling “perishable commodities” to access the interstate highway system at weights in excess of 80,000 pounds. The term “covered commodity” includes raw logs and forest products, pulp wood, chips, and biomass.
Representatives Collins and Wied sit on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is the panel that will hold the pen on writing a new highway bill. The Hardwood Federation team will be working with our partners in the forestry and forest products value chain to include either of these measures in the final surface transportation reauthorization bill as it is forged in the coming months.
In addition to these two measures, a coalition of large manufacturers in the food, beverage, and pulp and paper sectors is promoting legislation that would authorize a 10-state pilot program to allow 91,000-pound rigs equipped with a sixth axle on the interstate highways. This bill is aimed at providing relief for shippers whose rigs weigh out before they “cube” out. In many instances, rigs are leaving distribution centers half or three quarters full because they have hit the 80,000-weight limit. This inefficiency results in more truck trips, increased traffic and air pollution. Variations of this bill have been under consideration for several years. The farthest it has made it in the legislative process was a House floor vote in 2015.
Unfortunately, the Class 1 railroads have and will continue to oppose all of these measures to make truck transportation safer and more efficient. We are hopeful, however, that these bills will be recognized by House and Senate leaders as modest, practical reforms and will move to include them in the highway bill rewrite when it is finalized next year. It’s never too early to engage and offer input on these big picture, multi-year pieces of legislation. The Hardwood Federation will continue to work closely with our Congressional allies to effect positive change through the reauthorization process.
Dana Lee Cole is the executive director at the Hardwood Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based hardwood industry trade association that represents thousands of hardwood businesses in every state in the United States and acts as the industry advocacy voice on Capitol Hill. She can be reached at dana.cole@hardwoodfederation.com.