Safer Roads for Those Who Serve Act of 2026
Sponsored By: Senator Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV]
Introduced
Summary
Strengthens protections for highway workers and other roadside personnel by tightening crash data, forcing state safety planning, expanding NHTSA outreach, funding research, and making safety a factor in major grant decisions.
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- Workers: Requires states to collect clearer data that distinguishes highway worker crashes and to add highway workers into incident tracking. States must list strategies in their next safety plan if worker injuries or deaths rise compared with the most recent two-year period.
- Outreach and enforcement: Expands National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program activities to cover workers and people stopped on roadways. The Administrator must update Move Over materials within 2 years, run a public service announcement within 180 days, and the bill authorizes $2.0 million per year for Move Over activities for 2027–2031.
- Research and project rules: Directs research and outreach using FHWA and university resources and authorizes $3.0 million per year for 2027–2031. It also adds work zone safety plan requirements to INFRA, Mega, and BUILD grant criteria to protect workers during construction and after completion.
*Authorizes $2.0 million per year for Move Over outreach and $3.0 million per year for research from 2027–2031, increasing federal spending by about $5.0 million annually over that period.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Grant rules to protect roadside workers
If enacted, applicants for major federal surface-transportation grants would need to show how projects protect highway workers and road users. INFRA applicants would explain plans to reduce vehicle intrusions and manage speeds. BUILD and Mega program applicants would have to include work zone safety plan components and describe protections during construction and after completion. These rules would use the CFR definition of "highway worker" at 23 CFR 630.1004 (or a successor).
Move Over outreach and program scope
If enacted, the bill would expand highway safety program scope and name highway workers as an explicit priority in National Priority Safety Programs. NHTSA highway safety programs would explicitly cover stopped or parked vehicles and people next to the road, including construction, utility, and those helping disabled vehicles, and add a goal to reduce injuries and deaths in work zones. The Administrator would update Move Over public materials within two years and run a public service announcement within 180 days after that update. The bill would authorize $2,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2027–2031 to pay for the Move Over outreach and PSA work.
Crash data and state plans for workers
If enacted, agencies would be required to collect and report crash data that separately counts highway workers using the definition at 23 CFR 630.1004 (or a successor). If a State's total annual highway worker injuries and deaths rise over the most recent two-year data period, the State would have to add a list of strategies to its next highway safety plan that draw on FHWA Work Zone Management Program practices.
Research and outreach to protect workers
If enacted, the Secretary of Transportation would carry out research and outreach to improve highway worker safety. The work would include behavior-based interventions, engineering, education, and technology and would build on existing TRB studies and research centers like Turner-Fairbank and university transportation centers. The bill would authorize $3,000,000 per year for fiscal years 2027–2031 to carry out this research and outreach.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV]
NV • D
Cosponsors
Sen. McCormick, David [R-PA]
PA • R
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov