Three States Could Lose Federal Funding For Defying Trump’s Trucking Mandate

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday gave California, New Mexico, and Washington 30 days to comply with federal English proficiency rules for truckers or risk losing federal funding.

Duffy criticized the three states for failing to enforce new Trump administration rules requiring English proficiency for truck drivers. He announced the move after the Department of Transportation launched an investigation into a deadly August 12 crash on the Florida Turnpike, in which an illegal immigrant driver allegedly killed three people after making an illegal U-turn.

“We at DOT and Federal Motor Carriers, we are not going to tolerate states that don’t comply with the rules that come from this department,” Duffy said at a press conference. “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 the federal funding that they receive under the Motor Carriers Safety Assistance Program.”

Harjinder Singh, the accused driver in the Florida crash, was given a commercial driver’s license by both California and Washington. New Mexico law enforcement also failed to administer an English proficiency test to Singh when he was pulled over in July for speeding, the Transportation Department found.

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California could lose $30 million, Washington $10 million, and New Mexico $7 million if they don’t align with the English proficiency standards. The policy was first announced in May and then implemented at the end of June.

“When we did that, there was a lot of press that complained to us that we were being unfair to people, that we were being mean to people,” Duffy said. “And what we said was, ‘no, this is a safety issue.’ Making sure drivers of very heavy, 80,000-pound rigs can speak the language is truly a critical safety issue.”

Duffy said his department would take additional steps to ensure compliance if the states did not satisfy the requirements.

An investigation from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found that from June 25 to August 21, California allowed at least 23 drivers with documented violations of English proficiency in other states to remain on the road.

During that same period, Washington allowed four drivers to stay on the road with proficiency violations from other states and two drivers who violated proficiency regulations in Washington.

New Mexico also allowed seven drivers to stay on the road who had documented failures in English proficiency.

The Trump administration has taken other steps to crack down on the number of truck drivers who are unable to understand English. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that he had paused the issuance of work visas for commercial truck drivers.