Ohio lawmakers fighting plan they say could shield rideshare services from negligence claims, gut passenger rights

WASHINGTON – More than 120 House Democrats including several Ohioans are demanding Speaker Mike Johnson strip a provision from a major federal transportation bill that they say would shield Uber and Lyft from liability when their drivers sexually assault or injure passengers.

The language at issue was added to the BUILD America 250 Act by Rep. Vince Fong, a Republican from Bakersfield, California, during a late-night May 22 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.

It would limit the circumstances under which ride-hailing companies can be held responsible for damages caused by their drivers, allowing liability only in cases of gross negligence or criminal wrongdoing by the company.

In a June 10 letter to Johnson co-led by Akron Democrat Emilia Sykes, who serves as vice chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, the Democrats say the provision puts riders — particularly women — at serious risk. Other letter signers included Warrensville Heights Democrat Shontel Brown and Columbus Democrat Joyce Beatty.

“The bill as amended sets the stage for corporations to be shielded from liability from passengers who allege sexual assault, are seriously injured, or are killed when using rideshare apps such as Uber and Lyft,” they wrote. “As this Congress engages in a bipartisan effort to reform our own practices to keep women safe from sexual misconduct, it is unthinkable that we would create pathways to immunity to corporations if sexual assault, or worse occurs when using their services.”

The letter also warned the amendment could wipe out existing state liability protections and keep rideshare companies from being held liable if a driver harms a passenger.

“This creates not only an extraordinarily high legal threshold for victims to pursue accountability, it discourages companies from taking necessary steps to keep passengers safe,” the letter argues.

In a May press release, Fong celebrated the bill’s committee passage, and defended his amendment as an affordability measure, saying that roughly one-third of a rideshare fare in California — and nearly half in Los Angeles — goes toward government-mandated insurance costs.

He described the provision as a way to “reduce transportation costs by curbing limitless, frivolous litigation against rideshare companies.”

The Sacramento Bee reported that Fong’s amendment is also connected to a broader campaign by Uber to reshape liability law in California and nationally, including a ballot measure the company has bankrolled with $70 million so far that would cap attorney fees in car crash cases.

Trial attorneys opposing that effort have separately gathered enough signatures to advance a California ballot measure that would increase Uber’s liability in sexual assault cases and require new driver screening safeguards. Consumer advocates have argued Fong’s federal amendment, if it survives into the final bill, could undo that California ballot measure if voters pass it.

Consumer activists including Ralph Nader have also expressed alarm over the amendment. In a June 4 letter to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Nader accused the rideshare company of ” actively pursuing legal and legislative changes in California and at the federal level that would weaken its accountability for injuries and deaths tied to its platform and the autonomous vehicle systems Uber is now rapidly deploying.”

He called the effort “a fundamental attempt to undermine the rights of injured people and reduce corporate responsibility at the very moment rising autonomous systems are being tested on public roads at scale.”

He said Fong’s amendment was “cynically advanced during a 2 AM House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vote over Memorial Day weekend, and said Uber is trying to secure liability protections for itself before its autonomous systems become widely deployed across American cities.

“Robotaxis are not mature, fully validated systems,” Nader wrote. “They are experimental technologies operating in complex real-world environments. When they fail — whether through sensor error, software malfunction, negligent remote operator intervention, road and weather conditions, or design defect — the public must retain the full ability to investigate those failures, access evidence, and hold the responsible parties accountable in court.”

The BUILD America 250 Act is a five-year surface transportation reauthorization that funds roads, bridges, rail and other infrastructure. Because it is considered must-pass legislation, it has become a vehicle for a range of policy amendments. Opponents of the Fong provision say the rules governing floor debate on such funding bills make it difficult to strip amendments out once they have been included.

The Democrats’ letter noted a 2025 investigation by The New York Times that found Uber received a report of sexual assault or misconduct in the United States nearly every eight minutes on average between 2017 and 2022, a figure far higher than what the company had previously disclosed publicly.

They also cited recent court cases, such as a February ruling in Arizona that ordered Uber to pay $8.5 million in a rape verdict involving one of its drivers. In April, Uber lost another sexual assault trial involving a driver in North Carolina.

The Democrats also flagged what they called a retroactive dimension of the amendment that could affect cases already in the courts. “The amendment’s retroactive language would shutter the courthouse door on survivors who were harmed under today’s law but have not yet filed,” they wrote.

“These ongoing incidents demonstrate why Congress should be strengthening oversight, improving transparency, and encouraging stronger safety protocols, rather than clearing the path for unprecedented liability shields to multibillion-dollar corporations,” the letter said.