Reclaiming America’s Roads: The Fight to Save the Trucking Industry

Welcome to Arkansas First Reports. I'm your host, Candy Cox, and today we're diving into a critical topic that affects every American who relies on the strength, safety, and integrity of our nation's supply chain: the state of the American trucking industry.

Joining me is a powerhouse voice on this issue, Shannon Everett. He's the co-founder of American Truckers United. This organization has become a bold voice in the fight to protect the rights of American truckers and bring accountability back to an industry under siege. According to their mission, the industry is at a crossroads plagued by influx and untrained, unvetted drivers, largely due to open borders and weak enforcement, resulting in a surge of fatal crashes and suppressed wages.

Shannon has been on the front lines advocating for common-sense reforms, greater transparency in brokerage practices, and the enforcement of safety standards that put American lives first. Today, we'll talk about the biggest threats facing our truckers, from overreaching federal regulations to foreign labor displacement and the real-life consequences of allowing illegal and unqualified drivers behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound machine on our highways.

We're also going to break down the differences between the House Bill that Shannon advocated for, House Bill 1569, which was the Secure Roads and Safe Trucking Act of 2025, and House Bill 1745, which passed. We'll also touch on President Trump's executive order requiring English proficiency for commercial drivers, which is already making waves across the industry, and what more needs to be done. This episode is all about truth, transparency, and taking back control of American roads. Buckle up. It's going to be a powerful ride.

Shannon, welcome to the show.

Hey, good morning, Candy. Thank you for being with us today. You know, this, uh, this bill actually started, you and I were talking about, um, as a resolution that you brought to the, um, Sel, excuse me, the Selen County Republican Women. Uh, and, uh, you presented that, and it, and you presented why it was important because you have all, you know, years and years in the trucking industry. And, um, it passed unanimously, overwhelmingly, uh, by the women of that, of that club. So talk to me about this.

Yeah. So, you know, I think that's one of the most interesting things about this has been my experience in, uh, being involved politically. Yeah. You know, I never was a very political person. I mean, I, I've always followed politics, but I, I, I've never run for office. I've never campaigned for anybody or, or helped anybody run a campaign. And so, there's a whole different side of this that you don't see until you engage and get involved in all of that. Right. And so I was, I was very active in, uh, men's ministry. And one of those, one of those men, uh, was Randy Sams, who's a member of our Selen County Republican Committee. He's also my, he's also my next-door neighbor. Yes. Uh, another member of the Republican Committee, um, had reached out to me, and, and, uh, that's Carol. Uh, she's also a neighbor of mine, right? And they both kind of approached me and, and knew I was passionate about some issues in, in, uh, in government and, and said, "Hey, you need to come check out the, uh, the committee meetings." And I said, you know, I attended those a couple years ago, but I haven't been very involved. And they're like, "No, no, it's different now. You know, you, you need to come check it out. People are like, really taking action and getting involved in things that matter. It's not just like a procedural meeting." And so I said, "Okay, I'll come check it out." And so my very first meeting, um, Jennifer Lancaster was speaking, and she was talking about it being a spiritual battle. Yes. And she was quoting scripture. She was quoting Ephesians 6:10, talking about the armor of God, and, uh, and that we were to approach everything spiritually. What she didn't know, and I, I didn't know Jennifer at the time. I'd never met her before in my life. But she didn't know at that time I had a coin in my pocket that I, when I get a chance to pray with someone, I hand out those coins, and on those coins, it's Ephesians 6:10. It's the armor, and it tells you that it's a spiritual battle, and you start every day, you know, in fellowship with the Lord, so you can approach it from a spiritual perspective, right? And so it's funny. I was reminding Jennifer yesterday. I was like, uh, I know you didn't know. You probably thought I was weird, but when she got through speaking, she walked by me in the crowd. I hand her that coin. Yeah. And just, it was confirmation for me. They always say like God winks at us, and so he confirms, uh, his plan for us and like where he wants us to be and what he wants us to do. And so Jennifer saying that in that meeting, and me having that in my pocket, and us having that exchange was a confirmation for me. It was a God wink for me. It's like, you're supposed to be here, right? And, uh, and so I, I took that very seriously. And so I, I did, I engaged, um, and, uh, got very involved and, and, uh, attended all the meetings, and, and Randy and Carol were right. It was different. You know, we, we had a lot of people. The community was very engaged, and people were showing up and, and speaking up. And, well, it was the largest committee in the state. It had grown by leaps and bounds by grassroots people who were ready to make changes, and it was almost unanimously all people that were in support of the Make America Great Again movement, in support of, um, our president, uh, who has now been elected. And so it was, it was really just refreshing and exciting and to kind of see all of that. And what everybody didn't know is, and which, which we don't know about everyone in the room, right? We're all walking through different things in life. That's right. You know, and so like God used Jennifer to speak to me. God used you to speak to me because I saw courage in you. I saw courage in Jennifer, and I saw courage in Randy, and I saw courage in Carol. It's like, where's that coming from? And I saw very quickly like, "Hey, you know, this is, this is bigger than politics. There's a spiritual thing going on here." Right. And, uh, because that courage comes from Christ. It's the only place it comes from. That's right. Like, I didn't do anything. God did everything. That's right. You know, and so, uh, and that, and that's, I think that's one of the great messages, too, is like, just draw near to him. Have fellowship with him. Like, for, it's okay for you to have a plan, but his plan's way better, right? And so just be okay with his plan, right? Walk every day and accept, uh, because I'm, I'm going to tell you, as we get through this story, everything he did was way better than anything I did. Yeah. Yeah. Because he knows the ending before we know the beginning, right? Yeah. And so it's like, it's so amazing. But, um, and so anyway, so I, I see all this activity going on, and, and, and then there's the crash of, uh, and so I'm, I'm, I'm kind of, I'm starting with the committee here, but there's a, there's a backstory, right, about the trucking issue, but, uh, so I'm going to, I'm going to keep going on this, and we'll go probably go back in history a little bit later, but so I'm seeing all this activity going on, and I've got a backstory, and my backstory is in trucking, and my backstory is in illegal immigration and how it's affecting the trucking industry and how it's affecting highway safety. And, and so I'm seeing all this stuff, and, um, I'd been, I've been going through a period of my life where I was just drawn really close to the Lord, like, I, I call it cave time. And, uh, cave time is, uh, is the story of King David, um, when he was running from Saul, and he was in the cave of Adullam, and he spent all that time in fear, and he was hiding out, and, but that, that everybody gets cave time. Yeah. It looks different for everybody, you know. Um, but, uh, it's, it's so good. Uh, at the time, you don't know it's good. Right. Right. But when you look back, it's just like, man, I really needed that, you know, because, uh, so there's, we think it's all us. We think it's our plans, and what we don't realize is God has a plan for us. And, uh, and, uh, I learned that in my cave time. And so I was going through cave time when I come to this committee. Uh, I had, I, I'd just come out of the cave, really, and was starting to kind of revitalize, I guess, and, and walk with the Lord in a strong, strong, powerful way. And, um, and so when I saw everybody's, uh, spirit and I saw what was going on, I was like, "Wow, this is, this is amazing." And, and then Scott Miller died, and, and Scott Miller, the Scott Miller crash. This starts getting into how all this got going, but, um, Scott Miller was a man in Colorado, and this was national news, and, uh, he was hit by a truck driver that was an illegal immigrant that had already been deported from the country 16 times. Uh, did not have a US commercial driver's license. And, uh, because of my industry experience, I knew how he got here, right? I knew how he got back every time. Yeah. And I really, so there's so much going on in my life at the time. I've got so much to this, but I really felt the Lord tell me, "Okay, it's time." Yeah. You know, it's time, and this is it. And, and so I, I was, I feel like I was called into this by the Lord very clearly. Very clearly. And, uh, so I reached out to the family, and, uh, of course, I didn't get an answer from them. Couldn't, it was hard to track them down, and I, at the time, I wasn't even on social media. Um, I hadn't had social media in, I don't know, 15 years or more. No Facebook, no Twitter, none of that stuff, right? I was really antisocial media. And I still am, unless you got to get a message out, you know, right? And, uh, but, uh, couldn't reach the family. And so I said, "Okay, well, I'm going to start investigating crashes." And, and so I started looking into crashes, and I found the crash of Mark Bryant. Very quickly, what I did is I went to the Arkansas Highway Police website where they list fatal crashes. Fatal. And that's motorcycle crash. And by the way, I advise you, if you ride a motorcycle, don't go to that website and look, 'cause almost every fatal crash in Oregon, it's, it's ridiculous. You'll see a truck crash, car crash, motorcycle, motorcycle, motorcycle. Exactly. It really woke me up. It's like, man, I'm not letting anybody. But I'm going. Yeah. My boys keep wanting a motorcycle, and I'm like, "Mom is just not in favor of motorcycles." And this comes from someone who used to ride motorcycles. That. And so I was scrolling through this data, and then I see this crash, and, uh, it's a guy named Mark Bryant. It's in Lawrence County, and, um, I see the truck and everything involved. I was like, "I'm going to check that out." So I, I called the state police, and they said, "It's under investigation. We can't give you a copy of the report." And so, if you don't know, anybody can go access a crash report, uh, from the Arkansas State Police for $10. You just have to have the day of the crash and the name of the victim and some other information, and you can go see what's going on with these truck crashes. And I encourage y'all to do that. We need, we need to hold these people accountable. That's right. And so I, I couldn't get the report. So, um, I started trying to reach out to his family to see if they could give me information on how he died. And that's when I met Leona. And so I, I did some research on Facebook and other places, and I found Leona, which was the ex-wife of Mark Bryant. And I reached out to her, and, and she told me the story, and it was exactly what I thought it was. The guy was from Honduras. He had come into the country illegally. He was working for a company out of Oklahoma. He was hauling out of, uh, some u-mine, I don't know if it's sand or gravel or something like that, up in Lawrence County. And he was coming across a, he was coming up on a curve. It was a, it was a sharp curve. And, uh, he probably couldn't read the signs, right? Because we know he didn't speak English, right? He misses the curve, goes over in the other lane, and kills Mark Bryant. And, and Mark Bryant has, you know, uh, three kids, and, uh, was a, had worked for the Arkansas State University for a long time. And the family was just devastated. And when, when I met up with Leona, she was, she was really, uh, relieved because she'd kind of been, they'd all been kind of like, "How's this happen? How in the world is there an illegal alien driving a commercial truck?" Sure. And so they didn't have a lot of answers, and she's like, "I need you to call my attorney, you know." So I called the attorney, met with him, his name is Brandon. Talked to him for a little bit, and explained who I was. And at the time, there was no American Truckers United or stuff. And so I just said, "Hey, I'm an industry expert. Um, I've got a lot of experience in, in immigration and trucking and all this stuff." And, and I've been quiet for about four years now. And, uh, I feel like I'm supposed to help y'all. And so what can I do to help you? And so we started exchanging information. I went and looked up information for him on the trucking company and all this stuff. And, and so anyway, I called a friend of mine, Harvey Beach, and I know he's been on your show. Yes. Yes. He was on, he was on one of our podcasts just about a month or so ago. So, yeah. And, and Harvey had been experiencing, uh, what I had experienced in my backstory, uh, which was the economic damage side of this, in that his business was struggling because our, our industry's been, uh, been flooded with too much supply of labor. We, we call it labor dumping now, where we've got an excess amount of truck drivers that are coming from foreign countries. And, and he and I had been talking behind the scenes about that issue. And I said, "Look, man, I really feel like the Lord's called me to do this. It's not just the economic damages to me and you now. Scott's killed, Mark's been killed. There's families over here praying and crying out. It's like, we can help them. Right. Right. And I think, I think we're supposed to do that." And he said, "I'll do it with you." Yeah. Just for our viewers, um, if you want to go back and listen to that podcast, the name of that podcast was "America Truckers Under Fire: The Fight for Safe Roads and Fair Policies." It's such a great interview with Harvey Beach. So I encourage you to go back into our podcast and look for that, or you can also find it on, um, Arkansas First onest.com. And so he agrees to do it with me. And so it's like, how do we do this? We don't, we don't have a clue, you know. We set up the, we do it all the right way, though. We contact the attorneys, have it all set up and structured, and, and off we go. And, and, um, we didn't have any intent of filing bills and legislation per se. Uh, what I wanted, what we wanted to do was to make, uh, the public aware, right, and to, uh, advocate for drivers and for the crash victims, uh, with the public. But we didn't know anything about writing bills. And I had seen through the Selen County Republican Committee everybody doing this resolution process, right? Of course, I wasn't aware of that. And, and, you know, I've heard, I've heard a lot of people say, "Oh, those are pointless, you know, it's not necessary." I'm here to tell you today that it was a necessary part of this journey. Yeah. It gets, it starts getting people informed because you presented that in the Selen County Republican Women, and then you went to the Selen County Republican Committee, and it also passed unanimously there, and then you started going to other committees and talking to them and presenting resolutions within their committees. And so what it does is it gets people informed. And so I, I had been told several times like, "This is a federal thing. This is a federal thing. You got to go, you got to go beg your federal legislators to do something." I've done that. I have sat down with every single one of our federal leg, well, except WMAC. I did not sit down with WAC, and I talked to French Hill by phone. Uh, but I've sat down with the other legislators and federal legislators and couldn't get any help. Right. Uh, they agreed that it was an issue, but they all said to me, "Hey, uh, you're the only one saying something about this, and we can't go up against the Arkansas Trucking Association. You're going to have to get the Arkansas Trucking Association to do something." And so that goes back to the backstory we might get into later, but, um, I'd already tried to do that. And, and so, um, I think this, this story is so cool because it shows that the grassroots is really where it's at. That's right. It is. And, and you don't have to go beg people, right, to help you. Uh, you, which is why it's so important what we talk about all the time with Arkansas First is how important it is to be engaged. Yeah. And to pay attention to exactly what's going on because it is our voices that make the difference. And this is a, this is a great example of that. And so, and so it's like, okay, um, we want to get the message out. Let's get up and start speaking at the committee meetings where people are politically engaged and they, they seem to care and want to help. That's right. 'Cause that's the best place to go. Like, these people are, they want to help. And so, um, I asked to speak, uh, at the Republican Committee meeting, and then I asked to speak at the Republican Women's, and the women's come on the schedule first. We went to the women's meeting. I introduced the resolution, and I think one of the most interesting things is it was exactly what we thought it was. I think it's pretty easy to say there might have been one other person who was in trucking that was aware of the issue, right? But it was almost unanimous that the room didn't know that was taking place. Oh, I was floored at the information that you brought in. And that's having with some little knowledge. I, I think you and I had a conversation that I have family in trucking. I have a cousin who's owned a trucking business, and so having little knowledge of the trucking industry, I was absolutely floored by the information that you brought. And, and so in that resolution, at the time, you know, we, we were focused on, um, these guys don't have US licenses. They didn't have United States commercial driver's license. So it's, how's, how's that possible, right? And, and so that was because of in my backstory and my experience. I was familiar with all these guys coming up from Mexico with all these fraudulent licenses, and, and our officers just letting them go, and, and not being properly credentialed, not being able to speak English. And it's just like, you know, so I shared all that with everybody. These guys can't speak English. These guys can't, they don't have a license. They don't have MVRs. Nobody knows what their driving history is like. Nobody knows their background. They could be criminals, right? Most likely are. And, and so everybody's just outraged. And so it passes unanimously. Yes. And then we go to the county committee meeting. Same thing. Everybody's outraged. It passes unanimously. And all that's recorded, too. We, we have all those recordings back from those days. And so, so then I ask, "Okay, Pulaski County, can I come speak?" "Hey, Faulkner County, can I come speak?" And of course, so I go speak at Pulaski. Now I go speak at Faulkner County. And so that is the grassroots, right? That's right. And, um, and, and so we're talking about these issues, and then, and then I get a phone call, and it's from the Arkansas Trucking Association, and, and the phone call was, "Hey, can you come by and meet with us? We want to talk about this soapbox you're on." Yes. And, and so I knew from my backstory that, um, that this was taking the wrong turn, just by the tone of the conversation, right? And that's because I'd gone to the trucking association back in 2019 when I'd laid off 450 American truck drivers. And it was hard. Yeah, it was really hard. Yeah. And, and that's when I went to all those federal legislators. I went to all of our congressmen and representatives and, and said, "Hey, you know, I need help with this." And, and I was the only one, I know I was the only one saying something at the time. And, uh, hey, you got to get the association on board. You get the association on board. And, and so I went to the association for help. They were outraged that I was going around them to the congressman, but I'd already mentioned it to them. They, they didn't want to help me. Had told me they were going to help me. And so I had to go around them. So then now they're mad because I'm going around them. You know, by the way, if you're in trucking, you know, you've got to go through the approved channels, right? Right. Or, or you're not being a good citizen, right? And so, um, I wasn't happy with the response I was getting, so I went around them. And, and, um, they, they call. So, we're back in 2019 right now. They call me into the office. I go up to the office, and I've got this whole presentation of all the material about what's going on. I show it to them, and they're like, "I've been getting a lot of phone calls about you sharing this information, and, uh, we think you should really put this down. This is not something that, that we're willing to discuss." You're getting the bad boy talk, right? And you're, and you're going to knock down a wasp nest and not have any wasp spray. Mhm. I was given that message by the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association, and I was shocked. I was like, "I don't, I don't even know how to take this right now." Right. And, um, and so I left there convinced that, uh, you know, I'm, I'm not going to, I'm not going to stop. And, and look, in 2019, I wasn't in fellowship with the Lord where I was supposed to be. Mhm. And, and so I would, I would just say to everybody like, I, I feel like that wasn't, um, it was more that I wasn't ready and it wasn't time than it was anything. And so all of these things is just the way God kind of orchestrated this story. And there is a season for everything. There's a season for everything. And sometimes that season's to wait. And so I waited. I had to wait from 2019, 2020, until 2024 until we started on this. Right. There was a long, that cave time that I'm talking about, there was a long waiting period. And, uh, but after, after I had that meeting with them, and I talked to some people, I continued to work on it and I continued to push through, and I won't go, it all takes too long to tell all the details of that, but, you know, and, uh, this is the first time I'm telling on anything, but I received a death threat, uh, about it. And I know you knew that I'd shared that with you before, I believe. And, uh, this is not anything I've shared with anybody, and, and up until, I didn't tell anybody about that, really, until, uh, 2023, I believe. But that happened in 2020, and that's what started my cave time because I was like, "Whoa, what, you know, what is this?" At first, I'm warned, and then now this, and, and so, it, it really was a massive issue. It was a huge, huge issue. And, and, um, this is when you know that you're doing what the Lord is calling you to do. You know when the pressure comes on from the world, right? Yeah. But he is so much greater than the world. And so that's where we have to draw our strength and our confidence is from the Lord when we, when we're going through these things and fighting these battles that truly do matter. Yeah. And, and so that's, again, I wasn't in fellowship with the Lord at the time, and I went into, I went into cave time. And, uh, and today I'm very thankful for that. Yeah. And, uh, and that's because, um, you don't know what you need until, until there's no one else to call to explain it or to understand it. And so I was, I was pushed, I was pushed to the Lord. And, uh, and I am so grateful because I'm a completely different man today. Yeah. Because of what I went through. And, and God used all of that for what he did, uh, for, for Deian Miller, and what he's doing for Leona Bryant right now, and what he's doing for American truck drivers right now, and, and what he's done for my life. And, um, and, and so the, the, it go, so I put it down for all that time. And so I'm back, and now, now we get to fast forward back to that phone call, right? So now they're calling me again, right? This is, so this is five years later, right? And they're calling me and they're saying, "Hey, um, we want to talk to you about this soapbox." And, uh, and I, I said, "Well, I'm, I'm going to pray about, uh, I'm going to pray about meeting with you because I've already given y'all all the information. You know, I'm giving it to all the citizens now. I'm sharing it with all the people. Uh, but you already have all this information, and so I really don't know what there is, and it's really at their fingertips." Yeah. Yeah. It's like, who am I? You know, y'all are the association. Why do you need information from me? You should already have this information. You should already be advocating for these issues. That's right. I don't need to come educate you. You know exactly what's going on. And so anyway, so I, I share like, I'm going to pray about it. And I, I did sincerely, sincerely pray about it. And I said, um, I think that, um, I think I should be able to present this information to the board. Last time, five years ago, I didn't get to present it to the board. I was, I was stopped from presenting it to the board. And so I was like, "I will, I will come meet, but I'd like to present to the board, not just one individual, right?" "No, you can't do that." You know, and, uh, and that's not how it works. I, I have to vent everything, and then you get to, then you get to show it to the board. And I said, "Well, the only thing that's changed since the last time I showed you all this information was the number of people that have died and the number of people that have lost their jobs. And so tell them that." And, uh, and then I, I've not talked to him since. Yeah. That was in, that was in, uh, June, June of 2024. And, and so I left there, and on the phone call, they had said that there was a, that they were working on a bill, and the purpose of the meeting was to hear my side of the story, but also to show me this bill. And so, so I left there not knowing what the, didn't go, didn't go talk to him, didn't go meet with him, not knowing what the bill said, and still attending these committee meetings, and, still praying every day, and, and just like waiting, really waiting on the Lord. And, uh, I was attending a Faulkner County Immigration Committee meeting, and I was given a speech on this because I had attended a Conway meeting, a regular, uh, Faulkner County Committee meeting, and was invited to this immigration meeting, and I presented this immigration meeting, and that's where I meet Representative Wayne Long. Yeah. And so, uh, one of the things that God showed me and stopped me through all of this is that, uh, his plans are greater than our plans. And so, if we'll go through the doors that he opens, right, then, you know, we're walking in step with him. And, and so, I'm always looking for, looking for what door, what door he's going to open for me. That's right. That's kind of how we, and that's what me and Harvey have kind of agreed to do through all this is, "Hey, let's look for the open doors and let's walk through those and let God open them for us, and let's not, let's not beat on anybody's door and ask them to help us." That's right. You know, let's just speak about it, talk about it, get the message out, and then, and then go through the doors that he opens, and, and we've been doing that. And, um, so Faulkner County, everybody oohed and ahed in the crowd, like they, like they've been doing. There's probably 100, 200 people there that night. And, and the representatives come up to me, and said, "Hey, I want to help you." I just, I, I love Mary Bentley. She's, she's one of our great representatives. She comes up and, and says hello, and says she wants to help me on the issue. Uh, Representative Long comes up and says he wants to help on the issue. And then, um, about two weeks later, I think it was, um, well, I'm, I'm, I'm passing a step here. So, so we, I had that meeting, and then I don't, I don't know if the, uh, Selen meeting came before that meeting or after, but there's another meeting in here before I get the phone call, but I'm at a Selen County Republican meeting after that or before that, and R.J. Hawk approaches me. Mhm. And he says, "Hey, I heard you're working on some trucking stuff. I've got this bill." Well, as soon as he said that to me, I knew R.J. Hawk didn't write no bill, right? You know, what does he know about trucking? And, and so it's like, "Okay, uh, I know where this bill's coming from." I didn't tell him that, but I knew where the bill's coming from. And I said, "Okay, send it to me. I'll take a look at it." And, um, a week goes by or whatever. I didn't get it. And then I finally get it. And so I received the bill, and I open it up, and my goodness, it's exactly the opposite of what I'd been getting up and talking about. And so the bill was written on its face. They say that they're dealing with, um, fake fraudulent, uh, CDLs. Mhm. Which I'm absolutely against fake fraudulent CDLs. Right. Right. But is it, but do we need to be trying to, uh, to band-aid the fake fraudulent CDLs, or do we just need to push back the system that's allowing a group of people to use a bunch of fake and fraudulent CDLs? Right? Like, why don't we have a, why don't we have a bunch of fake and fraudulent US CDLs, right? No, they were talking about fake and fraudulent Mexican CDLs, and, and so, but if, when you went down, so they, they did a little language about that, and then about, um, um, some kind of vote, some silly, uh, registration to vote stuff, or something. I, I'm not really understanding what the language was about the documents and fake documents and all this other. But, uh, what really got my attention was when you went down to reciprocity. Yeah. In the reciprocity section, Arkansas state law has always said, or for the longest time has said, that to drive a commercial motor vehicle, you have to have a United States commercial driver's license or a Canadian driver's license. And they wanted to strike that language, regardless of why they wanted to do it. They're going to, they're going to tell you 10 different reasons of why they wanted to do it, right? You're still changing state law. You're still changing a code of state law and reciprocity. Yes. And, and in that code, you're taking it from US and Canada to something completely different. Here's what they wanted to do. They wanted to strike the words "United States" and "Canada," and they wanted to add the words "non-domicile learner's permit" and "non-domiciled CDL from any foreign jurisdiction." And so the, the new, and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have the bill in front of me, but the new, but the new wording would say that to operate a commercial motor vehicle in the state of Arkansas, you can have a non-domicile commercial learner's permit, right? Learner's permit. Learner's permit. Yes. Or driver's license or commercial driver's license from any foreign jurisdiction. I was outraged. Yeah. It's like, have you, and he had never heard, I don't, I don't know that he had ever heard me speak about the issue. Uh, but I'm sure he had to have known that I was speaking about the issue. Of course he did. Yeah. And, and so when I saw that, I was like, "Did he even read this?" Mhm. Mh. Like, how in the world would anybody read that and send it to a guy who's getting up and talking about how unsafe our roads are because we've allowed all these untrained, unqualified, unvetted people on our highways that can't even read or speak English, and, and say, "Hey, would you, you know, do you support this?" It's like, it's going the other way. Right. Right. And I don't know, you know, I was just like, "What?" And so I sent it to him, and then we, we have this back and forth, and it just like spirals out of control. And so, uh, I could tell that wasn't getting anywhere. So, I, I just, you know, I just said, "Look, you know, I'm not in support. I'll, I'll be in opposition to this." And so, you know, we, we haven't really talked since that. And, you know, he and I directly met one time at a restaurant and exchanged pleasantries. But, uh, I can just, again, the door was shut. The door was slammed. That's not an open door. No. No, it's not. That's not an open door. And so, uh, I could tell where that was coming from. So, I was just like, "Okay, shut that door. Move on." And, uh, and then one night I get a phone call. They wanted you to be, they wanted you to be okay with it, to shut you up. Yeah. That's what it was. And so, I get a phone call from, um, Representative Long, then. Yes. And it was probably, you know, a couple weeks after that. I'm not real sure the timing, but he's like, "Hey, you know, I'm working on all this immigration stuff, and, um, I really liked what you said in Faulkner County, and I want to help you." And, uh, he said, "I'll, I'll write a bill for you." And I was like, "Man, that, I was just so pumped. That's like one of those, that's an open door, right? That's an open door, you know." So, I was just so pumped. And, and, uh, I said, "Man, that, that would be great." And, and so, um, you know, he, he wrote, uh, House Bill 1569, which is the Secure and Safe Roads Act, which addressed, uh, English proficiency. It was one of the very first things. "Hey, a guy must be able to read or speak English. If he can't read or speak English, uh, we're gonna not only fine him, we're gonna impound his truck." Yes. And, and so we're gonna make the roads safer by taking the driver that can't read our signs off of the highway. And then it addressed, um, the, uh, foreign driver's licenses, which it specifically went on to say, our first, our first draft was like, "Hey, we don't believe we should be accepting any drivers from Mexico and Canada." And we received pushback on that because there's a trade agreement, the USMCA, uh, that allows drivers from Mexico and Canada. Um, and so we, we amended that after to say, you know, with the proper documentation, really, and, and really more to push back on the B1 visas. Really, how these illegal drivers are getting in here is an abuse of a visitor visa. They're in here working, and they're all here on visitor visas. They're not on work visas, right? They're not supposed to be working, right? So, the bill addressed that. And then the bill addressed, I mean, when you really dig into this, it just makes you mad. Yeah. As, as a citizen, as a mom on the roadway with your kids in the car with you, to understand that these truckers that are, are here, that they can't read the road signs, they can't speak English. And, and our government is going, "That's okay." Yeah. That's okay. And you look, you know, one of the things I kept telling people, I don't really believe our government's been doing that, though. I really believe there's been a group of people that have been kind of exploiting loopholes and letting this go on for profit, right? And what I found is that most of the, most of the government didn't know, right? And are still being misled. And we'll get into that here in a minute. You just look out here. I, I would tell people, just out here on the 30 right here coming through Selen County with the construction and how narrow and it, you know, it goes from wide lane to narrow like, really quick, and these truckers, if they can't read our signs, we, we were having accidents all the time out here involving trucks. Yeah. And, and so the third thing that addressed was, uh, the, uh, non-domicile CDL. So, look, I've been doing this for 25 years. I didn't know what a non-domicile CDL was. It wasn't until Congress, or Representative R.J. Hawk handed me that bill, 1745, right, that had the language "non-domicile CDL" in it, right, that I learned what a non-domicile learner's permit, a non-dom. So, I've employed thousands of truck drivers. Thousands. I've looked at, I mean, I've got people that do the recruiting stuff, but I've, I've seen several applications. I've seen several licenses. My recruiters and stuff say that they've never seen a non-domicile learner's permit or non-domicile CDL. And so when me and Harvey started looking into this, "What in the world is it? What, what are they trying to do here?" You know, right? And so we find out, we find out, and, uh, that that is a license for a non-citizen. Yes. That all that several states, uh, you know, we didn't know it at the time, we know it now, at least 20 have passed state law, which is what Arkansas is trying to do, allowing for states to issue what is a non-domicile CDL, which is, "Hey, you can issue now, issue a CDL driver's license to a non-citizen." Mhm. And so that has never been the case. In fact, you know, none of these states were doing it up until like 2021 is when we really found that it took off. Right. And so, so what started out as foreign driver's licenses and English proficiency has now dwarfed into, "Oh my goodness, they're giving them US CDLs." Mhm. And they're calling them these non-domiciles. And so it then takes this whole other level. And so, um, so we get all that in our bill, and, and, um, and we get our, we get our bill, you know, that's like, you know, December or so when we're kind of working on all that stuff. And then, uh, and then we get it filed, you know, and, uh, and so HB 1569 files, and we're like, "Man, this is going to be good." And, uh, you know, we have a, we have a meeting with the chair of the Transportation Committee. We have a meeting with state police. Uh, we have a meeting with the chief of the Highway Police. Uh, we have a meeting with some lobbyists. We call them all in a room, and, and, uh, we show them, "Hey, this is, uh, we want to educate y'all and show you what we're talking about, what's going on here," and we give them this whole rundown. You can tell, again, it's, it's more shock, right? It's like, "What?" You know, and, and so, you know, there's a comment in the room that's, "We, we got to get this addressed, boys. You know, we need to, we need to work this out." And so, we're all, I mean, that was a great day. It's a great meeting. It's like, "Man, this is all headed in the right direction." Yeah. And then here comes the Arkansas Trucking Association. Yes. And, and look, you won't see them publicly speaking about any of this. It's all behind closed doors. Yeah. And on phone calls. And so, um, we leave that meeting, and, and then like the, the next day, it's like, "Well, you know, our representative, you know, you know, this is a federal thing. You know, the, the word starts going around, federal, federal, federal, federal, federal." And what I, what I've learned is that, um, through states' rights, and because of federal code, there's, there's a federal code that allows the state to enact more stringent regulations on commercial motor vehicles, right, than the federal statute. We can't go less than, right? Okay. Well, making our roads more safe is, is a, is a higher standard, not a lesser standard, right? You know, I, I would say the, the lesser standard is allowing in a bunch of fake CDLs and a bunch of unvetted non-domicile CDLs. And so, uh, so here we are, 1569's filed. We've talked about all these English proficiencies already filed, right, in the state. And, oh, no, we can't do that. We can't do English proficiency. We can't do, uh, non-domicile CDLs. We can't touch B1s. None of that. No, we can't do any of that. It's a federal issue. You can't do it at the state level. Okay. It's like, what? Mhm. Why don't we take this to the committee and let our representatives decide what we can do, right? And let our senators decide what we can do, not these state agencies and the trucking association, right? And so, you know, we're, we're trying to, uh, get our bill heard by committee, and, uh, we're not getting anywhere. And, uh, it's never getting on the agenda. And then that, that bill that, uh, R.J. had presented back the year before, Mhm. Uh, I, I left out an important detail on that. It was, it had on it, um, that it was, it was to be filed in special session. So they were preparing that bill in 2024 to run it in the special session that never ran. I believe there was a special session that was going to run in Q3 or Q4 that never ended up getting called, and so that bill had been idled because of that. Right. And so here it comes. Yeah. They file HB 1745. Uh, and when they file it, I'm like, I honestly thought we were making enough noise. And at the time, we really didn't have a lot of media coverage, uh, yet. We, when we filed 1569, that's when the media coverage started, right? Uh, prior to that, there wasn't hardly any media talking about the issue, and, uh, the first, uh, news organizations to pick it up were all industry news, right? It really started getting really popular with industry news, and, and so Arkansas still wasn't seeing that. But if you're in the industry, word was all over the country, "Hey, there's a bill in Arkansas about English proficiency." Well, that was 1569, right? And I, I even, uh, text you because I was on TikTok, and truckers all over, because, you know, the, you know, the algorithm on TikTok, if you watch something through, you see it, you know, you constantly get that in front of you. And I text, I'm like, "This is all over TikTok. Your bill is all over TikTok." And the American drivers, uh, the American truckers, yeah, were in huge support. Oh, it was unanimous. Yes. By far. Yes. I mean, if you can, you can count on one hand the, the, you know, the, the guys who were against it at that time, you know, and, uh, and so, yeah, so it was, it was really very popular at a national level on social media, like, "Wow, look at what Arkansas's doing." All pumped, and even our social media. I told you earlier, like, I didn't do social media, but we had to create social media for this association. And, and so we did, and that's when our social media.

Really started blowing up and uh and so that was that was neat to experience and uh it has re it's like really gone crazy since then. But um but so we're the social media is starting to buzz now and and we've got this bill file and everybody's getting excited. I mean, there was there's drivers just putting out random Tik Toks that drivers already being arrested and and that was all just rumor and buzz and and but it was out of it was way out it was way beyond us. Yeah. Anything that we could control and and so uh we we felt really good about the momentum was like, "Wow, this momentum is really going to carry this thing through."

And um and so then 1745 comes in and it no more than gets filed. It immediately gets to committee. And so before we can have a committee hearing, 1745 gets filed and they get their committee hearing. And so I have to call in all of our families that have been impacted in the crashes. I have to call in these other trucking companies and also called in some towing companies. Hey, we all come testify about the crashes that y'all are cleaning up. And so we all testify not for our bill. We're just trying to defend the fact that they're trying to stop our b our bill, right? by by uh producing this kind of a ghost bill that acts like it's doing something but it doesn't. And so we go in and we testify against it and because and here's here's the main thing here. Here's the reason we're getting 1745. We weren't against 1745 because we want people to use fraudulent CDLs, right? We were getting 1745 because there's nothing you can do to prevent a a country that has a culture of of crime and abusing uh their licensing issuing system and all that stuff. There's there's no amount of regulation and and things that we can do to fix Mexico, right? Or or to fix the problems they had in Canada. Exactly. And so the so the real solution was the solutions that we offered. If they're violating the law, get them off the road. Exactly. Impound their trucks and pull them off the highways. It's It's not, oh, slap them on the hand and let them keep operating. Right.

And so, uh, I mean, because I I spoke to a couple, um, state troopers that told me that when they, you know, have these drivers that can't read or speak English, that the process of trying to get anywhere with them takes hours and then they end up just letting them go. So, you know what they do instead? So, then they start discriminately not enforcing the law on them. Exactly. And enforcing the law more on the American truck drivers, right? And that's what we're experiencing. Yeah. There would be a lot more uh incidents if the officers weren't regretting having to engage with a bunch of people they can't even talk to. Right. And and so who are you going to pull over? Right. Like nobody knows. You're an officer out here on the highway. Nobody nobody's telling you which truck you have to stop. Right. Right? So, you're making these engagements and you're pulling them over and are you going to pull over this guy or you going to pull over that guy? This guy's going to take you two hours. You're going to get frustrated and maybe it's the end of your shift and you won't deal with that or you can go get this guy that might just have a tail light out and you can hit him and you, you know, and right everything just be fine. And so, we believe there's a lot of that going on. Of course, you can't prove that out, but u I I know that we have got to we have met with tons of law enforcement officers. The officers, right, not the politically engaged leadership. Exactly. But the officers are outraged and frustrated that our highways have been turned into this as well. Yes. And so we support our highway officers and and we're happy that you guys are out there now uh hopefully going to be allowed to enforce the laws are tied. That's exactly right. And they and the minute that they would if they were to come out in support of what we were doing 1569 or speak out, do you think that would have been accepted by their leadership? No. Absolutely not. No. I've actually run into these highway officers in restaurants and everything else like that and and they're they're very supportive of what we're doing. They just can't publicly say that. Right. And so, uh, it's always it's always a good feeling for me when I get to run into one of them just out in and I get to talk to them on the side and their bosses don't know. Right. Exactly. And uh and so um your your officers support us by the way. That's right.

And so, um, you know, so their bill gets filed. We get everybody rallied up. We get to committee and, uh, we're in committee and we testify. And so these these ladies are testifying about losing a husband, losing their dads. Yep. Uh, they're, uh, we had a tow company testify about 80% of his wrecks being impacted by this stuff. And uh we had business owners testifying about how the it's they're being economically damaged. But this is what I've learned about about our system that really needs a rapid. It's very important that we get to it quickly that our representatives and our senators learn that they need to listen to the constituents and not the special interest groups. Yes. And the problem is like this situation is so complicated and so complex and I understand that representatives and and and so they have to trust someone. Mhm. And the Arkansas Trucking Association has been up there for so long. U they were able to mislead our representatives and senators on this issue this time and make it like, oh, this is just about fraudulent CDLs. Oh, this is all we can do. We're doing everything we can do. And what they weren't telling them is we have members there's members in the Arkansas Trucking Association who are economically benefiting from the use of these drivers. And so that's the real story. Exactly. Is who's making the money off of it. And so who's who's who's lobbying the Arkansas Trucking Association? And that's what you all should be asking. Yes. Who who who in the Arkansas Trucking Association is using these drivers? And why was it important for the Arkansas Trucking Association to shut down the conversation on B1 truck drivers? Why was it important for the Arkansas Trucking Association to shut down the conversation on non-domicile drivers, right? And why was it important uh for them to shut down uh 1569, right? And so, um, they unanimously passed out of committee that day after all that you So, the only person that spoke for the bill was from the Arkansas Trucking Association. Yes. You had all these people that spoke against it. Yeah. And then you had someone from the trucking association that spoke for it and it unanimously passes and and your bill gets still never gets heard. Yeah. Still never gets heard. and and and so it so the congressman that obviously that presented the bill spoke and then this representative from the trucking association spoke and so it unanimously passes and it's just like oh my goodness like what is that you know that's just more God because he has a better plan that's right that's right you know and so we all celebrated uh afterwards uh I I would say too like that committee hearing um another example of the games and the shenanigans uh was uh they quickly uh limited us to 3 minutes per speaker and uh was quick to shut us off uh as we were trying to talk. So you could see you would see these ladies talking about their husbands and the widows, you know, we're done. We're done. You know, you hear these guys talking about talking about losing your dad, losing your husband and the emotion that comes from that. It's really hard to get to the meat. Yeah. in three minutes. And then the same thing, you know, you got these business leaders, they're being economic, they're bleeding out. You're done, right? You're done. And so at the end of the day, they really didn't want this message getting out. Yes. They really were trying to silence the message and and and and uh you failed, right? And so uh so failed greatly because it really has opened up. It's amplifying. Yeah, it is. It's opened up the door. It's called the Barbara Stryand effect. The more you try to silence like she was trying to hide I don't know if are you familiar with that? Uhhuh. She was trying to hide the location of her house or whatever and everybody found out she was trying to do that. So they all found they all found her. So it's like okay and so I believe that's what's hap going to happen in this situation and uh and so anyway so you know 15 1745 gets out and uh again 1569 is not getting scheduled. Like what is that? I I don't know cuz I'm not very involved with We're trying to investigate now. Like how does that even happen, right? That we never even get a committee hearing. Yes. Uh but 1745 goes straight to the House floor. We we take it's last everything's moving so fast for them. Yes. Like we we don't even have time to like organize a bunch of truckers and it's like two days later we're on the floor, right? And so we grab who we can and we go up to the C. We kind of protest. We had signs, you know, standing on the steps like, "Please, here's We had this big sign that showed the differences between 1569, 1569 requires English proficiency. 1569 bans B1 visitor visas for work. 1569 gets these non-domicile, non-citizen truck drivers off our road." I got all these issues. 1745, does it do English proficiency? No. Does it do uh uh visitor visa abuse? No. Does it do non-domicile CDL? No. I had this long list. You probably saw it. Yeah. Yeah. You've got a video of that on the social media page. Yeah. And it's like I I was trying to make it as simple as possible. So like even if they're lying to you, kindergarten could understand. Even even if they're lying to you, you can see very clearly here that these are two very different issues, right? Two two different bills. uh 1569 has criminal statutes that would have held the the uh the guy who killed Mark Bryant accountable. Yes. Instead of getting uh negligent homicide or whatever misdemeanor charge, whatever it was, and and only being in jail for days, uh we wanted manslaughter, I believe, is the it was felony, you know, 10 years time, right? So, it had all that in there. And then 1745 literally had uh three things and that was uh the fraudulent CDL, a felony for that, and then um um a felony if you didn't have this EAD card representatives, the EAD card, the the guys coming from Mexico that are operating on visitor visas, which is the majority of the traffic coming from Mexico, which is supposed to be the issue that they're addressing that they were even addressing was 1745. They don't have EAD cards, right? They have this B1 visa. And so what's going to be interesting is how these officers apply this law. And we're Hey, we're going and we're going to show you everybody. Yeah. Because, uh, it's not going to do anything. And so, um, the majority of the population aren't even impacted by what they're trying to do. It's a very small percentage of the population. And I think I'm getting a better understanding of where their head was the more I research this non-domicile and the more that comes to uh to light on this non-domicile issue. It's really revealing what they were up to. And um and so um so anyway um I forget where I was at on the on the 1745, but we're up there protesting and we got it all clearly laid out on the chart and then the vote again. It's just that we had one vote for us and everything else was just like for them and the one vote was our representative, right? Right. he was presenting who was trying to present your bill. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just like, wow, man. This is this is amazing. And and so um so we we leave there and it's just like, you know, it's it's at the time uh it's I mean we're we're all still um we're defeated in the moment. We're like, man, this is rough. You know, really thought we could stop this. Uh but God had a better plan and I'm thankful for that because it's so much better than what we were trying to really made uh national news and um you've been on several national platforms uh talking about it and so even that defeat that day on the house floor uh just fed up more social media. Yeah. you know, so we were doing that in March, I think was that House floor vote, probably somewhere around there. And like our our views on social media at the time, in February, I think we were probably getting 2 million views a month. And then by March, we were at 4 million views for that month. And now for the month of April, we were over six million views. Yeah. On social media content. And so it's just like every time, you know, they try to knock us down or whatever, it just kind of gets amplified. Amplified. Amplified. Amplified. Mhm. And so we're grateful for that because, you know, the message is a much bigger message and uh and and so then we had the judiciary committee uh hearing because it went to the Senate side and got moved to judiciary and that's where that's where okay now all of a sudden they care about English proficiency. Yeah. They filed an amendment and added English proficiency to 1745. And what's interesting about that is if you read the news like here lately, it's like, "Oh, we did English proficiency." That's not what 1745 was, right? They brought that in at the 11th hour. And I I really believe that was because of of the message uh that was getting out uh about um you know, the uh the English proficiency message was just really starting to get was getting loud, right? And they were probably getting a lot of pressure from the representatives and senators. Hey, you know exactly. Yeah, we we need to that. Yeah, we should require English, you know. So, they added that to their bill and they took out the non-domicile CDL. Mhm. They took out the non-domicile learners permit. So, there was there was three great victories, right, through all of that. And that was the fact that we stopped them from getting their non-domicile CDL in the state of Arkansas. Yes. We stopped them from getting their non-domicile learners permit in the state of Arkansas. And then we got on to Adling English proficiency. On the English proficiency, you know, we were disappointed, not disappointed now, uh, but we were disappointed at the time, uh, because they still refused to put the truck out of service. Yeah. You know, they set a $500 fine if you can't speak English. So, their plan 1745 in the 11th hour, okay, we're going to add in English proficiency, but we're not really serious about it. We're just trying to uh, you know, probably pacify some representatives here. Here. We're trying to quiet the quiet. Yeah, we're trying to cry. So, we're going to we're going to put some language in there so we can tout that we did English proficiency, but it's not going to do anything. Yeah. Where's the teeth? Yeah. We're going to let So, we're going to pull a a guy over. The officer is going to know that the guy can't speak or read highway signs, and he's going to let him go and proceed on his way. What What is that? That's not doing anything. Right. And so, uh, and so they they did that. We continue to speak against, hey, this isn't the And so we really start, you know, highlighting you got to take them out of service. And so we continue to speak against them. And we're speaking against them from the perspective, hey, we need 1569. I I don't I representatives and senator, I don't want y'all thinking that this fixes it. We need 1569. And uh in that Well, here's what's very interesting in that testimony. Mhm. Now everybody go back. You can go back and look at this. Yes. The president of the Arkansas Arkansas Trucking Association says it's my understanding their bill has been withdrawn this morning. Okay. And me and Harvey are like what? Mhm. We nobody's withdrawn anything. Right. And so uh no there had been nothing withdrawn at that time. uh the bill then disappeared uh from the agenda and uh and so you know I I would let um I don't want to step on any toes with my representative so you know he can tell his story about all that but everybody should just pay attention what was that right that was news to Shannon and Harvey and uh and so how is that possible exactly and so um because you had not withdrawn Right. Yeah. It's not my position to Right. I'm not the representative. And Wayne Long had not withdrawn, right? Yeah. And so, and you had not asked Wayne Long to Absolutely not. I I'd actually he he'd been pressured to and and and I'd said we, you know, let's let's have our committee hearing. Let's have our testimony and let's let them vote it down. Yeah. Okay. Make them vote it down. Yeah. Make them speak. I want them I want them to go on recording it down. Exactly. And we didn't get to have that. So, what is that? Mhm. And and so um so anyway um they that passes out of committee, it goes to the Senate and uh and again it just you know they I would say that um I don't know what the final vote was over they had to go to the House again and and all the votes and stuff but it just you know they got 1745 through and uh at the time you know it yeah it was it was a little discouraging but again you don't know what God's doing, Right. And so and so that's why the word's so important um in in what he teaches us and that's you know in Matthew 6:33 when he talks about seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be added unto you. It's okay. You know in that passage in Matthew 6 he's talking about do the birds worry you know the before that it's proceeding they don't worry about. So why worry? Don't worry when you get defeated. Don't worry when you get up and you speak about a resolution and you know your legislators aren't wanting to back you. Uh don't get up don't worry when you go into a committee and everybody votes against you. Don't worry when you go into committee and you talk to your own personal representative who knows your issues and he still votes against you. That was upsetting. Yeah. And uh don't worry when uh your own senator is a co-sponsor on the bill. Yeah. Against you, you know. So all all this stuff was just really lined up against us and and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful for that and uh because it well sometimes that it it it opens up more doors because it even sparks more of a passion and God you know opens uh other doors and gives us more things to work on. And so you take that and I know that you know recently President Trump signed an executive order. So, do you want to talk about that? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh you know, we and as all of this is going on in the state of Arkansas, the social media is going wild and um have really taken off and and also uh we're being asked to appear on a lot of different shows, radio shows, talk shows, um uh you know, these uh the Steve Bannon show or the war game. We're also having talks with uh there's also talks going on in the background some very high level people one of them being from the administration and and so uh we're having talks uh there was some conver conversation with some people in in um some federal agencies all the stuff's going on behind the scenes and and so we we knew uh that the White House knew uh and that they were we had been told that they're working on it weeks prior to that at least probably a month prior to that. I know I got specific word when we were at the Mid-American Truck Show in Kentucky. Hey, this is being worked on from the White House down. And I was like, wow, that that's pretty cool. Yeah. You know, and so so we we were confident that uh that it had landed in the right places and it was being worked on. We just didn't know how. on April 11th, uh we sent a letter to the Secretary of Transportation, Trump's new cabinet member, Sean Duffy. Yes. And uh we outlined specific things um and we said, "Hey, you uh you know, welcome, but we've got a crisis right now in the trucking industry and it's really related to immigration and could you please focus on these five things?" And and those five things were pretty much exactly what 1569 had in it. Yeah. and it was English proficiency. Um, it was the non-domicile CDLs. It's addressing the foreign CDLs and it's addressing uh criminal statutes. And then it's calling for a task force to go evaluate the economic damage. And if you read the executive order, it says English proficiency. It doesn't say English proficiency and a fine, right? It says take them off the road. Yes. Yes. Out of service violation, which is which was 1569. Yes. And then it uh And then it says uh that they're going to investigate the issuance of these non-domicile CDLs by all the DMVs. Mhm. And then it says they're going to uh investigate and validate all these foreign CDLs. And then it says they're going to go review the economic conditions of American truck driver. And so uh it's all been really really exciting. And and uh and we're just so thankful. But I I think the most important thing here is that along that way along this whole path uh we were praying in committee. Mhm. There was there was a group of men praying in Bible study. Randy Sams being one of them. Y who got me to come to committee. So we were praying in committee. Um you know uh there were the families of the uh the accidents. They were praying for for God to move in this. The business leaders have been praying that have been economically damaged have all been praying. We've now got a group of uh over uh 3,000 truck drivers. Uh we've got a group of over uh 3,000 trucks now that are this is separate. We've got carriers and we've got drivers. Our carrier membership now makes up over 3,000 trucks. all those business leaders are praying and uh and and just so many people that are uh watching and involved through social media, you know, have been praying and and so we really got to see a mighty move of God. We got to see a miracle, right? as as just faithful people were in prayer asking for the Lord to move and just trusting that even though you know uh the odds were against us and people were saying that it couldn't be done and were voting against us uh that God gets the final say. That's right. That's right. And it, you know, when you're looking at where you feel defeated or you think that there's a defeat, God's promises of hearing our cry and hearing our prayer and has brought all these people together to pray for this. Yeah. One of the things Harvey likes to talk about all the time is he was so moved uh that first time that we testified in committee uh because he hadn't got yet to meet all these people and and we called them in and everybody just kind of swarmed in to to testify and he was like look how God has brought all these strangers together. Yeah. And now we all have this relationship and we're all friends. Yeah. And he's using that to love on every for each one to love on one another. And it just and same's going on with the with the business owners, right? Like we're lifelong friends now, you know, and it's it's more than just a trucking association. And that isn't that the core of putting America first. Yeah. Yeah. And putting and putting Christ first. Yeah. You put Christ first. You know, I think that's the message, too. Uh America first uh can only come after Christ is first. That's right. Amen. Amen to that. Wow. What an eyeopening conversation today with Shannon Everett of American Truckers United. As we've heard, our nation's truckers are at the backbone of the America's economy. And yet, they're being undermined by government overreach, open border policies, and unsafe practices that put every driver on the road at risk. The fight to protect American jobs, enforce safety standards, and restore dignity to this critical industry is far from over. But voices like Shannons are leading the charge. If you care about safety, sovereignty, and supporting the hardworking men and women who keep this country moving, now is the time to stand up. Let your voices be heard. Sign up at americaners.com. You do not have to be a trucker to sign up on american truckers.com to be engaged. Right, Shannon? That's right. Registration's free. Demand accountability and keep pushing for policies that put America first on the roads, in our workforce, and in every corner of this nation. Thanks for tuning in to Arkansas First Reports. Be sure to subscribe, share this episode, and stay connected with us. If you enjoy this content, consider supporting us at arkansasfirst.com. And that's arkansas.com. We'll be back soon with more truth, more action, and more ways for you to make a difference. Until next time, I'm Candy CS. Keep fighting, keep praying, and keep putting Arkansas first.