House Transportation panel hears industry warnings on rising cargo theft and calls for federal coordination

A bipartisan roundtable convened by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee brought industry representatives, union members and insurers together to describe what witnesses called rapidly rising cargo theft across rail and trucking networks and to urge stronger federal coordination to detect, investigate and prosecute organized theft rings.

The discussion focused on three core problems: a surge in incidents that industry witnesses said is driven by organized and transnational criminal groups, safety and infrastructure consequences for railroad and trucking employees, and gaps in reporting and prosecution that make it difficult to assemble cases that meet federal thresholds. Witnesses and committee members discussed pending federal bills and operational fixes including standardized reporting, improved FMCSA registration checks, aggregation of related thefts for federal prosecution, and a proposed federal task force.

Industry witnesses gave multiple estimates of the economic scale and rapid growth. A witness identifying himself as a representative of the US Chamber of Commerce cited industry estimates that cargo- and retail-related theft impose tens of billions of dollars in costs on the economy and supply chains, and noted the INFORM Act (passed December 2022) and state-level activity on organized retail crime.…