Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said a nationwide audit has found New York to be the worst offender in unlawfully issuing commercial driver’s licenses, warning the state it has 30 days to comply with federal law or risk losing tens of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Duffy said the audit revealed that more than half of New York’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses were issued illegally.
“We’ve done this nationwide audit. We found the worst offender, which is the state of New York,” Duffy said.
“53% of New York’s non domiciled CDLs were issued unlawfully or illegally.”
According to Duffy, the core problem centers on New York’s practice of issuing long-term licenses to individuals with only short-term work authorization.
“Now what New York does is if an applicant comes in and they have a work authorization for 30 days, 60 days, one year, New York automatically issues them an eight year commercial driver’s license,” he said.
“That’s contrary to the law. That’s one offense.”
Duffy said the audit uncovered additional failures beyond the length of the licenses themselves, including a lack of basic verification by state officials.
“But we also found that New York many times, won’t even verify whether they have a work authorization, they have a visa or they’re in the country illegally,” he said.
He warned that the consequences of these practices extend beyond paperwork violations and pose a direct risk to public safety.
“So they’re just giving eight year commercial driver’s licenses to people who are coming through their DMV and sending them out on American roadways,” Duffy said.
“And again, they’re endangering the lives of American families.”
Duffy said federal law leaves him little discretion in how the matter must be handled.
“I don’t like that. I have to do this, but the law requires me to do this,” he said.
He announced that New York has been given a firm deadline to correct the violations.
“I’m going to give New York 30 days, because that’s what the law requires to come into compliance with the rules that have been long standing at the Department of Transportation,” Duffy said.
He added that federal officials are prepared to work with the state if it follows the law.
“If they come into compliance, we’re going to work with them,” he said.
However, Duffy warned that refusal to comply would trigger immediate financial consequences.
“If New York refuses to come into compliance, because Kathy Hochul, for some reason, believes that we should have unqualified truck drivers on American roadways, we are going to pull 10s of millions of dollars as phase one for the state of New York,” he said.
WATCH:
