Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned New York that the state has 30 days to comply with new rules surrounding non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) or face losing millions of dollars in federal highway funding.
According to a federal audit, New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has been illegally issuing CDLs. “The federal audit exposed a shocking 53 percent failure rate in the records sampled, indicating a total collapse in the administration of New York’s CDL program,” a press release from the Department of Transportation explained. The state’s DMV officials confirmed that the licensing system “programmed to default to an automatic 8-year expiration for non-REAL ID CDLs—intentionally disregarding the expiration of a foreign driver’s lawful presence in the U.S.”
Unless the state revokes every illegally issued license, it will lose an estimated $73 million in funding.
“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership. Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding,” said Duffy. “This administration will never stop fighting to keep you and your family safe on our roads.”
New York State Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson Walter McClure claimed Duffy was “lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents.”
“Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant’s lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations,” McClure added. “This is just another stunt from Secretary Duffy, and it does nothing to keep our roads safer. We will review USDOT’s letter and respond accordingly.”
Last month, a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a DOT policy narrowing the conditions under which states may issue commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens. The ruling argued that the federal government could not “articulate a satisfactory explanation for how the rule would promote safety.”
“Whereas the FMCSA does not appear to have demonstrated any safety benefit from the rule, the county petitioner has furnished evidence that the rule would harm public safety by forcing it to replace safer experienced drivers with less-safe new drivers,” it stated.
