Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy continues his crusade against states he claims have improperly issued non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses, saying more than half issued by North Carolina are illegal. And, as he has with other states similarly accused, Duffy threatened to withhold millions of dollars of federal funding if changes are not made.
On Thursday, Duffy's office issued a statement saying he "exposed that 54% of North Carolina’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses reviewed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration were issued illegally."
This was similar to revelations Duffy made about non-domiciled CDLs issued by California, New York, Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, South Dakota, and Texas. The improperly issued CDLs were found by a nationwide audit by the FMCSA.
If North Carolina does not revoke all illegally issued licenses and change their processes, Duffy said the DOT will withhold nearly $50 million in federal funding.
“North Carolina’s failure to follow the rules isn’t just shameful – it's dangerous," said Duffy. "I’m calling on state leadership to immediately remove these dangerous drivers from our roads and clean up their system."
“The level of noncompliance in North Carolina is egregious,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs. “Under Secretary Duffy, we will not hesitate to hold states accountable and protect the American people."
In a letter sent to Democrat Gov. Josh Stein and North Carolina Department of Public Safety Commissioner Paul Tine, FMCSA outlined the audit’s findings of how the state illegally issued non-domiciled CDLs to:
- Drivers whose licenses were valid long after their lawful presence in the U.S. expired
- Drivers who were ineligible from holding a non-domiciled commercial CDL
- Drivers without North Carolina first verifying the individual’s lawful presence in the U.S
For North Carolina to prevent federal funding from being withheld, the FMCSA outlined what it called "corrective actions" the state must take including:
- Immediately pause issuance of non-domiciled CDLs
- Identify all unexpired non-domiciled CDLs that fail to comply with FMCSA regulations
- Revoke and reissue all noncompliant non-domiciled CDLs if they comply with the federal requirements
- Conduct a comprehensive internal audit to identify all procedural and programming errors, training and quality assurance problems, insufficient policies and practices, and other issues that have resulted in the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs that did not meet Federal rules
Earlier this week, Duffy announced he was withholding $160 in federal funds from California for that state's refusal to revoke the CDLs of some 17,000 non-domiciled truckers. That state had taken steps to withdraw those licenses, but reversed its decision when a lawsuit was filed on behalf of drivers challenging the federal order invalidating them.
