Dive Brief:
- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will withhold $158.3 million from California for the upcoming federal budget that starts Oct. 1, Administrator Derek Barrs said Thursday in a final determination notice.
- The determination was tied to a federal review of the state’s CDL program, which surfaced compliance issues with non-domiciled commercial driver licenses. In response to an initial finding, the state tried to cancel around 20,000 CDLs and commercial learners permits while getting new documentation from drivers to comply with federal standards.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described the issue as the state breaking federal rules and fostering an unsafe driving environment. Regulators have sought to raise the documentation needed for non-domiciled licenses through an interim final rule that a U.S. appeals court temporarily suspended as a legal case unfolds.
Dive Insight:
California’s pending funding loss is an escalation from earlier warnings from the federal government, which has similarly threatened other states’ funding, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New York.
North Carolina was added to that mix on Thursday with a preliminary determination and threat that its CDL program could be decertified. FMCSA also said the state could lose $48.8 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2027. Like other states, the federal government cited deficiencies in non-domiciled driving credentials in the state.
“We will not hesitate to hold states accountable,” Barrs said in a statement.
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer said his organization and truckers across America support the Trump administration’s actions to crack down on the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs. “For too long, loopholes in this program have allowed unqualified drivers onto our highways, putting professional truckers and the motoring public at risk,” he said in a statement.
California sought to cancel some 17,000 immigrants’ commercial driving credentials in connection with a Jan. 5 FMCSA compliance deadline.
But the state’s efforts to update licenses drew a legal complaint from the Sikh Coalition and Asian Law Caucus in December in state court. The complaint said nearly 3,000 additional driving credentials were also facing revocation in February.
Meanwhile, California’s Department of Motor Vehicles tried to extend the FMCSA compliance deadline to March 6, but the federal government refused to agree to an extension.
According to California, FMCSA’s decision “jeopardizes public safety because these funds are critical for maintaining and improving the roadways,” a spokesperson said in an email. “The DMV is fully compliant with federal regulations.”
The state could seek to resolve the matter through judicial review, but state officials declined to answer whether it would contest the final determination or whether it was preparing for how to deal with the loss of funding.
FMCSA’s Barrs suggested the matter could still be resolved without compromising the funding.
“The Agency remains committed to working with DMV officials to bring California’s CDL program into substantial compliance to ensure that further withholding of funds or decertification of California’s CDL program is unnecessary,” Barrs said.
