On Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy made a brief statement announcing a crackdown on three states that are not in compliance with federal regulations regarding English-language proficiency in the issue of commercial driver's licenses (CDL). The announcement comes in the wake of a fatal accident in Florida, caused by a non-English speaking driver who made an illegal U-turn on a highway that resulted in three deaths.
The Secretary announced a tight timeline for the three states, those being California, Washington, and New Mexico, to come into compliance or face losing federal funds.
Secretary Duffy said:
We are not going to tolerate states that don't comply with the rules that come from this department. And so we are going to, well, first of all we've identified several states that have not been in compliance. That would be Washington, California, and New Mexico. Those are the three states that have not complied with this rule. Which by the way, this driver in Florida, had received a CDL in Washington, California, and was pulled over in July for speeding, and no doubt couldn't speak the English language, and law enforcement in New Mexico did not take his rig out of service. So this one driver touched all three states.
Based on our review, they are not complying with our rule, and so phase one for us, which I am announcing today, we are going to give these states 30 days to come into compliance, with truck drivers speaking, proficiently, the English language, or we're going to look at federal funding that they receive under the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance program. So, with California, that's 20 million, 30 million? (voice in background) $30 million. Washington is $10 million, and New Mexico is $7 million. Jesse will confirm that in a second. These are millions of dollars. By the way this is phase one. There are other actions that we can take to make sure states comply. And hopefully in the next 30 days we won't have to withhold any money from them, but if they don't come into compliance, we will start with withholding this money and then we will take additional steps to guarantee compliance.
A press release from the federal Department of Transportation states in part:
An investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found significant failures by California, Washington, and New Mexico to properly place drivers out-of-service for ELP violations. In addition to the data, California Highway Patrol has also publicly stated it has no intention of following this important federal regulation.
These actions also come as Secretary Duffy advances its nationwide audit of non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) issuance – part of a broader effort to enhance safety on America’s roads and restore order to the trucking industry.
ELP would be English Language Proficiency.
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The Department of Transportation isn't the only federal agency addressing this issue. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered the State Department to halt all visas for truck drivers.
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It's rather an extreme example of belaboring the obvious to note that to safely drive a commercial truck anywhere in the world, one must be able to read and speak the primary language of that country. California, Washington, and New Mexico - all three blue states - don't see it that way, and now it's going to cost them.
We can expect, in particular, California's impeccably coiffed Governor Newsom to complain about this crackdown. But it was his state that issued a CDL to a non-English speaker, and it was in part due to this lapse in good sense that three people in Florida are now dead.
We will be watching this issue for whatever happens next. Stay tuned.
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