Feds Pull California Road Funding Over Truck Driver Issue

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is withholding approximately $160 million from the State of California for failing to cancel over 17,000 illegally issued Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) by the agreed-upon deadline of January 5, 2026. The FMCSA issued a Final Determination after California refused to cancel the licenses on time, allowing foreign drivers with invalid licenses to continue operating on American roads.  As part of the Secretary’s Nationwide Non-Domiciled CDL Audit, FMCSA uncovered a systemic collapse of California’s non-domiciled CDL program, which allowed the state to illegally issue licenses with expiration dates extending years beyond a driver’s lawful presence and to grant CDLs to individuals who were ineligible to hold them. According to the Feds, more than 20,000 active non-domiciled CDLs were issued by California in violation of federal safety regulations. In September of last year, a nationwide audit of trucking licenses exposed more than 25% of non-domiciled CDLs issued by California were issued unlawfully – including with licenses extending as many as four years beyond the expiration date of their lawful presence documentation.  In November, California agreed to revoke every illegally issued license within 60 days and work with FMCSA so the agency could verify that the failures that allowed these licenses to be issued are corrected. That did not happen and in response, FMCSA will withhold nearly $160 million of funds from California via the National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grant.  California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has indicated they are extending the deadline until March stating the cancellation of thousands of CDLs will severely impact the California economy.