WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2026 , The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has sent its long-awaited broker transparency proposal to the White House for regulatory review, moving a contentious freight-broker rulemaking one significant step closer to publication.
The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs now lists FMCSA’s “Transparency in Property Broker Transactions” proposal as pending review. OIRA’s official record shows the proposal was received Aug. 27, 2026, under regulatory identification number RIN 2126-AC63.
This is a new regulatory development, but it is not a final rule and nothing has changed for brokers or motor carriers yet.
The proposal remains under White House review and the updated regulatory text has not been made public.
FMCSA Is Preparing a Supplemental Proposal
The federal government’s 2026 Unified Agenda identifies the next action in the broker transparency proceeding as a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or supplemental NPRM. The regulatory agenda had previously projected publication in July, a target the agency missed.
The OIRA submission is significant because proposed federal regulations generally move through White House regulatory review before the agency can proceed toward publication.
Until OIRA completes its review and FMCSA releases the supplemental proposal, nobody outside the review process can say with certainty what requirements will be contained in the new version.
That distinction matters because the agency already published one major broker transparency proposal in November 2024 and received extensive feedback from carriers, owner-operators, brokers and other industry participants.
Independent trucking publication Overdrive also reported Friday that the proposal was transmitted to OMB on Aug. 27, independently matching the date now appearing in the government’s OIRA database.
Original Proposal Would Have Required Records Within 48 Hours
FMCSA’s original November 2024 proposal sought to overhaul 49 CFR § 371.3, the federal regulation governing records that property brokers must maintain.
Under existing regulations, parties to a brokered freight transaction have a right to review the broker’s record of the transaction.
FMCSA said during the earlier rulemaking that motor carriers had repeatedly reported difficulty actually obtaining those records, including situations where contracts contained provisions waiving access rights or brokers made records available only for physical inspection at their principal place of business.
The 2024 proposal would have turned broker disclosure from simply a right held by carriers and shippers into an explicit regulatory duty imposed on the broker.
That proposal contained four major changes:
- Brokers would be required to maintain transaction records electronically.
- Records would have to identify charges and payments associated with each shipment, including amounts, dates and certain claims.
- Brokers would have an explicit obligation to provide transaction records when a party to the transaction requests them.
- Requested records would have to be provided electronically within 48 hours.
Those provisions describe the 2024 proposal, not necessarily the supplemental proposal now sitting at OIRA.
FMCSA could retain, modify or remove portions of the earlier plan before publishing the next version.
Owner-Operators Pushed for Stronger Requirements
The rulemaking began largely in response to petitions from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the Small Business in Transportation Coalition.
OOIDA asked FMCSA to require brokers to automatically provide an electronic copy of each transaction record within 48 hours after the contracted transportation service was completed. It also sought an explicit prohibition against contract provisions requiring motor carriers to waive their right to review broker records.
SBTC separately asked FMCSA to prohibit brokers from coercing or requiring transaction parties to waive those rights as a condition of doing business.
FMCSA did not adopt those petitions word-for-word in its original proposal.
Instead, the agency proposed requiring disclosure when requested, rather than automatically sending every transaction record following every load. The 2024 proposal also would have allowed confidentiality provisions limiting further disclosure to people who were not parties to the transaction.
OOIDA argued in formal comments that a lack of effective transparency leaves small carriers more vulnerable to questionable chargebacks, unpaid loads, freight fraud and double-brokering schemes. Those remain the association’s arguments, rather than findings that every broker engages in such conduct.
Brokers and Other Industry Groups Have Pushed Back
The proposal has also faced significant opposition.
American Trucking Associations told FMCSA in January 2025 that the proposed disclosure requirements could place unnecessary burdens on brokers and interfere with competition within the freight marketplace. ATA urged FMCSA to reconsider the proposed changes.
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy has also documented sharply divided views among smaller companies.
Small carriers told SBA that better access to transaction records could help them challenge unfair charges and payment disputes, while small freight brokers raised concerns about confidential pricing, regulatory authority and competitive business information.
That disagreement is one reason the actual wording of FMCSA’s new supplemental proposal will be important.
White House Review Does Not Make the Rule Effective
OIRA currently classifies the action as a proposed rule and lists it as not economically significant. The government database shows no statutory deadline requiring the White House to complete its review by a specific date.
There is no new 48-hour disclosure mandate taking effect today, and carriers cannot treat the 2024 proposal as though it became law.
If FMCSA proceeds with a supplemental NPRM after White House review, the document would generally be published for public review and comment before the agency could move toward a final regulation.
The original NPRM was published Nov. 20, 2024. Its comment period initially ended Jan. 21, 2025, then FMCSA reopened the docket until March 20, 2025.
The updated proposal’s arrival at OIRA is the clearest indication in months that FMCSA is actively moving the rulemaking forward.
For owner-operators and small carriers who have spent years pushing for access to the numbers behind brokered freight transactions, the next document could be one of the more consequential business regulations FMCSA publishes this year.
Exactly what it will require, however, won’t be known until the administration finishes its review and the supplemental proposal itself becomes public.
