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. Scott Cornell, vice president and national practice lead for transportation at Travelers Insurance and chair of the Transport Asset Protection Association (TAPA), summarized CargoNet and other industry data showing very large increases: cargo theft overall rose sharply between 2022 and 2024 and a subset the industry calls “strategic” cargo theft grew from roughly 3% to about 33% of incidents, a change industry witnesses quantified as a several-hundred-percent increase in that subcategory.

Union locomotive engineer Eddie Strom of Union Pacific, who spoke for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, described on-the-job safety incidents he said relate to theft and vandalism: in one 2024 intermodal train he described thieves disabling an air-brake component to access containers; on another run vandals placed a railroad tie at a 45-degree angle on the track and a boxcar was set on fire. "It sounded like a bomb going off inside the cab," Strom said, and he described lengthy on-scene responses involving multiple crafts and agencies.

Witnesses described operational patterns that they said increase vulnerability: open or unsecured container doors left closed only after many miles; longer trains and staging outside secure yards where cargo is exposed; reduced on-the-ground railroad police and other staffing cuts tied to railroad operating changes such as precision scheduled railroading (PSR). The American Trucking Associations representative and other witnesses also described “strategic” theft methods that impersonate brokers or carriers, spoof tracking data, or use international criminal networks to move freight quickly out of the country.

Multiple witnesses said prosecution is a central deterrent gap. They told the committee that arrests often do not result in sustained prosecutions — one witness described an individual arrested multiple times in a single day with no subsequent prosecution — and stressed that federal investigative resources are often necessary because these groups operate across state lines and sometimes overseas. Industry witnesses and committee members discussed proposals in the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA) to centralize reporting and improve aggregation of related thefts in federal prosecutions by amending Title 18, and referenced a separate household-goods bill addressing truck-related fraud and registration gaps with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Industry and insurer witnesses urged several operational and legislative steps: a federal task force or centralized reporting unit to aggregate incidents across states; standardized law-enforcement reporting definitions for cargo theft so incidents are not diluted into auto-theft or burglary categories; verification and modernization of FMCSA carrier registration; wider use of covert tracking and door sensors with recognition that criminals are developing countermeasures that can spoof or remove trackers; and targeted federal prosecution resources to pursue the higher-level organizers rather than only low-level participants.

Committee members pressed witnesses on California-specific trends and the effect of state law changes. Witnesses noted California’s intense activity on retail-theft laws in 2024 and said those state efforts can help, but that cross-border criminal activity and data gaps still make federal coordination necessary. Several witnesses compared the needed public–private information sharing to post-9/11 improvements in transportation information exchange and urged a similarly persistent collaboration to track adaptive criminal tactics.

What happens next: members said the committee will review where federal statutory and operational gaps remain, and they flagged CORCA and related bills as potential vehicles for aggregation, standardized reporting, and a federal coordination mechanism. Witnesses said they will continue to work with the committee on specific standards for reporting and on technical fixes to FMCSA registration and data-sharing protocols.

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