The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it is withholding over $73 million from New York for failing to revoke illegally issued non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses and commercial learner’s permits.
“I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I’m delivering on that promise today by refusing to fund Governor Hochul’s dangerous, anti-American policies,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
The withheld funding represents 4% of New York’s National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Program Block Grant funds.
Duffy and FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs first threatened to withhold the funding in December. They called New York the “worstoffender” in the United States after an audit of 200 sampled records found that 107 non-domiciled CDLs had been issued in violation of federal law. FMCSA said New York issued about 32,000 non-domiciled CDLs.
New York officials have defended their licensing practices and said they are complying with federal law and that audits during the first Trump administration supported that.
Last month, FMCSA issued a formal notice refuting New York’s claims of compliance and reiterating that the state had failed to complete required corrective actions.
“These charges are a baseless attempt to attack blue states, because as everyone knows New York simply follows federally-issued rules when issuing commercial driver’s licenses, something that even the Trump administration has acknowledged,” Sean Butler, a spokesman for N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul told the New York Post. “This continues a year-long pattern of Secretary Duffy threatening to withhold money that keeps our roads, subways, and other infrastructure safe for New Yorkers. We will fight back, and once again we will win.”
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