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To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish an axle weight variance for certain commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill allows commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods in specially designed trailers to exceed federal axle weight limits by up to 10 percent. Dry bulk goods are defined as homogeneous, unpackaged, nonliquid cargo such as grain or sand. The weight variance applies to individual axles and axle groups but does not allow vehicles to exceed the maximum overall gross vehicle weight limit. The bill amends federal highway regulations to permit this accommodation for the trucking industry while maintaining the overall vehicle weight restrictions.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Ricketts, Pete [R-NE] (R-NE)
1 cosponsor
- Sen. Schiff, Adam B. [D-CA] (D-CA)
Actions (2)
- Jun 18, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works. · senate
- Jun 18, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 18, 2025
Mr. Ricketts (for himself and Mr. Schiff) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works
A BILL
To amend title 23, United States Code, to establish an axle weight variance for certain commercial motor vehicles transporting dry bulk goods, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Vehicle Axle Redistribution Increases Allow New Capacities for Efficiency Act” or the “VARIANCE Act”.
SEC. 2. AXLE WEIGHT VARIANCE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF DRY BULK GOODS.
Section 127 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(z) Axle Weight Variance for the Transportation of Dry Bulk Goods.—
“(1) Definition of dry bulk goods.—In this subsection, the term ‘dry bulk goods’ means a homogeneous, unmarked, unpackaged, nonliquid cargo being transported in a trailer specifically designed for that purpose.
“(2) Weight variance.—Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, except for the maximum gross vehicle weight limitation, a commercial motor vehicle transporting dry bulk goods may not exceed 110 percent of the maximum weight on any axle or axle group described in subsection (a), including any enforcement tolerance.”. <all>
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