The U.S. Transportation Department said this week it may withhold up to $30.4 million in federal highway funding from Minnesota over commercial driver licenses issued improperly to non-U.S. residents. The letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gave the state 30 days to come into compliance and revoke the licenses after a federal audit. 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 and a government audit.
Last month, the department threatened to pull $160 million in federal funds from California if it did not revoke 17,000 commercial driver licenses held by foreigners that the government said were improperly issued. In October, the department withheld $40.6 million from California in federal transportation funding for failing to comply with truck driver English proficiency rules.
In April, Trump had signed an executive order directing enforcement of a rule requiring commercial drivers in the U.S. to meet English proficiency standards. While the English-proficiency standard for truckers was already longstanding U.S. law, the order reversed 2016 guidance that inspectors should not place commercial drivers out of service if their only violation was a lack of English.
Separately, USDOT announced Dec. 1 that it plans to revoke the certification of nearly 3,000 commercial driver-license training providers from a government registry for failing to properly equip trainees. The targeted schools must notify students that their certification is in jeopardy. Another 4,500 schools are being warned they may face similar action.
Schools that lose certification will no longer be able to issue the certificates showing a driver completed training that's required to get a license, so students are likely to abandon those schools. It’s not clear how many of those schools have been actively teaching students.
In August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States was immediately pausing the issuance of all worker visas for commercial truck drivers.