The REPAIR Act would require original equipment manufacturers to provide independent repair shops and vehicle owners with access to the same diagnostic data, tools, and documentation available to authorized dealer networks, a structural shift that federal lawmakers have pursued across multiple congressional sessions without yet reaching a floor vote. In the 119th Congress, the House version (H.R. 1566) passed the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee by voice vote on February 10, 2025, and the Senate companion bill (S. 1379) was introduced on April 9, 2025. The primary House sponsors are Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA).
What the REPAIR Act Would Require
The full title: Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair Act, defines the scope of the obligation. Under H.R. 1566, automakers and vehicle equipment manufacturers would be required to make real-time vehicle data accessible to consumers and, at the consumer’s direction, to independent repair providers. The Federal Trade Commission would hold enforcement authority over violations.
Four requirements anchor the bill. First, OEMs must provide parts, tools, and diagnostic documentation on fair and reasonable terms, pricing cannot functionally exclude independent shops. Second, manufacturers cannot void a warranty solely because a consumer used an independent repairer or aftermarket part. Third, real-time telematics and on-board diagnostic data generated by a vehicle must be shareable by the owner with any service provider of their choosing. Fourth, access must be non-discriminatory, the same depth of data available to a franchised dealer must be available to a licensed independent shop.
The Senate companion S. 1379 carries comparable provisions but includes more granular specifications on data format standards and OEM compliance timelines. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced earlier Senate versions in prior sessions; S. 1379 in the 119th Congress builds on that foundation.
The REPAIR Act in its current automotive form does not cover consumer electronics. Smartphones, laptops, and home appliances fall outside H.R. 1566’s scope: a distinction that separates the federal automotive approach from state-level laws like New York’s Digital Fair Repair Act of 2022.
Legislative History: From the 117th Congress to Today
Federal right-to-repair legislation has accumulated incremental but real committee traction across three congressional sessions. The REPAIR Act received a dedicated subcommittee hearing, “Right to Repair: Legislative and Budgetary Solutions to Unfair Restrictions on Repair”, before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce in December 2021, producing testimony from iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens, US PIRG representatives, and opponents from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
In the 118th Congress, the vehicle-focused REPAIR Act was reintroduced as H.R. 906 by Rep. Dunn, while Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY) introduced the consumer electronics-focused Fair Repair Act (H.R. 8544). A Senate companion automotive bill, S. 3170, was introduced by Sen. Tester. Neither bill advanced past committee before the 118th Congress adjourned in January 2025.
The 119th Congress reintroduction on February 25, 2025, carried 16 original co-sponsors across both parties, including Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), and Ro Khanna (D-CA). The subcommittee voice vote on February 10, 2025, the first time any version of the bill cleared a procedural hurdle: marked the furthest the legislation has advanced. GovTrack estimates a 37% probability of H.R. 1566 clearing the full Energy and Commerce Committee and a 12% probability of enactment.
A parallel bill, the Fair Repair Act (H.R. 7404, 119th Congress), was reintroduced by Reps. Morelle and Gluesenkamp Perez alongside Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) to cover consumer electronics specifically. That bill targets parts pairing, the practice by which manufacturers use software locks to prevent non-OEM components from functioning, and would extend its requirements to phones, laptops, and connected devices. For a broader view of where repair legislation stands across all 50 states, see our US right-to-repair laws tracker.
Industry Opposition and the Cybersecurity Argument
The Consumer Technology Association, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, and several OEM coalitions have maintained consistent opposition to mandatory repair access legislation, primarily on three grounds: intellectual property protection, vehicle cybersecurity, and liability exposure.
The cybersecurity argument has gained the most traction in committee testimony. Opponents contend that mandating real-time data access creates attack surfaces for vehicle systems, a concern proponents dispute by distinguishing telematics data from control-system access. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation submitted written testimony arguing that the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding between automakers and independent repair associations makes legislation unnecessary.
The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has formally opposed H.R. 1566 and S. 1379, arguing the bills would undermine the franchised dealer network and expose sensitive vehicle data to bad actors. NADA cites data ownership ambiguity and insufficient safe-harbor provisions as central objections.
Auto Care Association data cited in Congressional Research Service materials estimated the independent auto repair market at $90 billion annually: a figure repair advocates use to frame the economic stakes of OEM access restrictions. Four lobbying coalitions filed formal opposition comments with the House Energy and Commerce Committee during the 118th Congress review period.
Right-to-Repair Coalition and Consumer Advocacy
iFixit, US PIRG, Consumer Reports, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation form the core coalition that has lobbied for federal repair legislation since the 117th Congress. US PIRG research published in 2024 estimated that enactment of the Fair Repair Act could reduce household electronics spending by 22%, saving the average family approximately $330 annually and generating roughly $40 billion in national consumer savings per year.
The Repair Association maintains a formal legislative tracking database covering active federal bills across automotive, agricultural, military, and consumer electronics categories. Agricultural right-to-repair legislation has followed a parallel track, driven primarily by John Deere and AGCO repair restrictions on farm equipment. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez introduced the bipartisan FARM Act in 2025 to address farm equipment manufacturers specifically, and the Warrior Right to Repair Act of 2025 (H.R. 5155) was introduced in September 2025 targeting repair access for military equipment.
Momentum has not been uniform. Congress stripped right-to-repair provisions from the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act despite broad support, both the House’s Data-as-a-Service Solutions for Weapon System Contracts provision and the Senate’s military repair instruction requirements were removed from the final NDAA text. For a state-by-state breakdown of where repair bills stand outside Washington, see our state right-to-repair bills guide.
What Comes Next for Federal R2R Legislation
The February 2025 subcommittee voice vote on H.R. 1566 is the bill’s most significant procedural milestone to date, but the full Energy and Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a markup. The Senate companion S. 1379, introduced April 9, 2025, has been referred to committee with no hearing date announced as of May 2026.
Three conditions would need to align for floor consideration: a favorable committee markup in the House, companion Senate committee clearance, and inclusion in a broader legislative vehicle — a reconciliation package, infrastructure bill, or NDAA amendment — that provides a path around the crowded floor calendar. The NDAA route has been attempted twice and stripped both times.
The FTC’s existing authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act provides an alternative enforcement pathway. The Commission issued “Nixing the Fix” in 2021, documenting manufacturer restrictions on repair and recommending legislative action. Under the Biden administration, the FTC signaled willingness to act on warranty restrictions; the current Commission’s posture on repair enforcement remains an open question.
State legislation continues to accelerate regardless of federal inaction. Fourteen states have enacted some form of right-to-repair law since 2022, creating a patchwork that manufacturers argue makes uniform federal standards preferable to state-by-state compliance. That calculation has emerged as an unexpected pressure point — OEMs that once resisted any federal bill are now weighing whether a single federal standard is less burdensome than 50 divergent state regimes.