Washington is beginning to treat autonomous trucking as a labor issue, not just a safety experiment. A new House transportation bill would set federal rules for driverless commercial vehicles while putting money behind workers who may have to adapt. The trucking automation debate has moved from tech demos in Texas to the committee rooms of Congress. That matters because self-driving freight is no longer a distant pitch from startups trying to impress investors. It is becoming a policy question tied to jobs, liability, interstate commerce and who gets to control the next version of America’s supply chain. The bill at the center of the fight is the BUILD America 250 Act, a five-year surface transportation package advanced by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in May. The proposal was led by Committee Chairman Sam Graves of Missouri and Ranking Member Rick Larsen of Washington, and it includes what the committee describes as the first federal framework for autonomous commercial motor vehicles. That is a big sentence with a simple meaning: Washington wants one rulebook for driverless trucks before states create 50 different versions of the future. According to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee materials, the broader package authorizes about $580 billion for fiscal years 2027 through 2031 and covers highways, bridges, transit, rail, safety and motor carrier programs. Inside that larger infrastructure bill is a section that could shape the deployment path for companies building autonomous freight systems, including Aurora, Kodiak AI, Bot Auto and others trying to move from limited routes to wider commercial service. The legislation would not immediately put fleets of unmanned trucks on every interstate. The Department of Transportation would have to establish safety standards, create reporting rules for crashes and incidents, and form a rulemaking committee that includes technology providers, truck makers, law enforcement, insurers,