The rhetoric between Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and California Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to intensify.
In a social media post Wednesday, Duffy accused Newsom of "lying" about an extension of deadline for the revocation of the commercial driver's licenses some 17,000 non-domiciled truckers.
California had issued a 60-day extension of the CDLs when the state was sued by Asian Law Caucus, Sikh Coalition, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP over the revocation of licenses held by drivers who are not U.S. citizens.
Duffy wrote on "X" (formerly Twitter), "Gavin Newsom is lying. The deadline to revoke illegally issued, unvetted foreign trucker licenses is still January 5. California does NOT have an ‘extension’ to keep breaking the law and putting Americans at risk on the roads.
“Miss the deadline, Gavin, and the @USDOT will act — including cutting nearly $160 million in federal funding."
This is just the latest threat by Duffy since early August, when a trucker who had entered the U.S. illegally from India caused an accident in Florida that claimed the lives of three people. California and Washington had issued the trucker non-domiciled CDLs
That accident prompted the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to audit the CDL procedures of all of the states. California was among several states that had improperly issued non-domiciled CDLs, prompting Duffy to threaten Newsom with the loss of $160 million in federal highway funds.
