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The re-election of senior Republicans on Nov. 8, solidifying the party’s control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, is expected to help Republicans unify the divisions within their party and approve a long-term funding fix for freight infrastructure projects next year, the incumbent lawmakers and GOP leaders said.

Voters in Illinois and New Jersey approved lockboxes for transportation funding while those in Washington State rejected what would have been the nation’s first statewide carbon emissions tax.

Republicans shocked Democrats by keeping control of the Senate, setting the stage for President-elect Donald Trump to enact a broad conservative agenda and ensure a Republican Supreme Court for a generation. That’s provided he can work with a GOP establishment he spent most of the campaign attacking.

WASHINGTON — The trucking industry’s chief representative on Oct. 26 called on Congress to take the lead on policy decisions regarding self-driving commercial technology.

For a third straight year, Wisconsin’s State Patrol has received federal and state funding in hopes of continuing to reduce large truck crashes in the state. The yearlong grants of nearly $500,000, which boosted the three-year total over $700,000, took effect Oct. 1.

Two Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration advisory committees forwarded on Oct. 24 a slate of comprehensive moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea risk factor recommendations that the agency could use in a formal regulatory requirement for truck and bus drivers to submit to costly diagnostic sleep studies.

An appeals court has rejected claims by an obese truck driver that he should not have been required by his employer to submit to a sleep study to determine if he had obstructive sleep apnea.