By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Transportation said on Wednesday it is withholding $160 million in federal funds from the state of California for failing to cancel
over 17,000 improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses held by non-U.S. citizens.
The department first warned in September it could take action. USDOT said California had failed to revoke the licenses by the agreed-upon deadline of January 5.
A spokesperson for California Governor Gavin Newsom did not immediately comment but said previously the state's commercial driver's license holders "had a fatal crash rate nearly 40% lower than the national average. Texas — the only state with more commercial holders — has a rate almost 50% higher than California."
USDOT said an audit showed more than 25% of commercial truck driver licenses issued to non-U.S. residents by California were unlawful.
“We will not accept a corrective plan that knowingly leaves thousands of drivers holding noncompliant licenses behind the wheel of 80,000-pound trucks in open defiance of federal safety regulations," said Derek Barrs, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Last month, California sued USDOT for withholding more than $33 million in federal funding after the U.S. Transportation Department said the state failed to comply with rules requiring English proficiency for truck drivers. California dropped a separate suit in December that it filed after USDOT rescinded $4 billion in high-speed rail funding.
The administration of President Donald Trump has taken a series of steps to address concerns about foreign truck drivers who do not speak English. In August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
In September, the Transportation Department issued emergency rules to drastically restrict commercial driver licenses to non-U.S. citizens after a fatal crash in Florida. Trump has regularly threatened funding for large cities run by Democrats, including for major infrastructure projects in Chicago and New York and over commercial driver licenses issued to non-U.S. residents by Minnesota, New York and California. FMCSA said in 2023 that about 16% of U.S. truck drivers were born outside the United States.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Rod Nickel)
