WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened Friday to yank $73 million in federal highway funding meant for New York after an audit found more than half of the Empire State’s commercial trucking licenses were issued to foreign-born drivers in the US illegally.
Duffy issued the warning after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reviewed all non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles and found a 53% failure rate.
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“When more than half of the licenses reviewed were issued illegally, it isn’t just a mistake—it is a dereliction of duty by state leadership,” Duffy said.
“Gov. Hochul must immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses. If they refuse to follow the law, we will withhold federal highway funding.”
The transportation secretary is giving Hochul and her officials 30 days to respond.
The FMCSA audit sampled 200 CDL records, of which 107 were unlawfully issued, the US Department of Transportation revealed in a press release.
At present, the New York DMV appears to have “defaulted to issuing 8-year licenses to foreign drivers for non-REAL ID licenses, regardless of when their legal status expired,” the release noted.
The state DMV officials in some cases also “relied upon expired lawful presence documents to issue commercial licenses,” it added.
Duffy is now calling on Hochul’s administration to revoke all the illegal CDLs, pause any new licenses or learner’s permits from being issued and conduct their own comprehensive audit.
“Secretary Duffy is lying about New York State once again in a desperate attempt to distract from the failing, chaotic administration he represents,” NYS DMV spokesperson Walter McClure said.
“Here is the truth: Commercial Drivers Licenses are regulated by the Federal Government, and New York State DMV has, and will continue to, comply with federal rules. Every CDL we issue is subject to verification of an applicant’s lawful status through federally-issued documents reviewed in accordance with federal regulations. This is just another stunt from Secretary Duffy, and it does nothing to keep our roads safer. We will review USDOT’s letter and respond accordingly.”
“The 2025 CDL audit uncovered that New York DMV’s license issuing practices are a grossly unacceptable deviation from federal regulations that have compromised the integrity of the state’s CDL program,” added FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs.
“New York must act immediately to comprehensively audit its CDL program and revoke every single illegally issued licenses.”
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