Overview
- The U.S. Department of Transportation said notices were sent to roughly 17,000 California non‑domiciled commercial drivers that their licenses no longer meet federal standards and will expire in 60 days.
- An FMCSA audit found systemic policy, procedural, and programming errors in California’s program, with about 25% of sampled records out of compliance, including licenses extending beyond work authorization.
- DOT is requiring California to submit a full audit of all non‑domiciled CDLs to verify cancellations and corrective fixes, and it has urged other states to revoke any illegally issued licenses.
- The department has already withheld more than $40 million in federal funds from California and is threatening up to $160 million more unless the state demonstrates compliance with federal standards.
- California officials dispute the federal characterization, saying the actions relate to state‑law violations and that affected drivers had valid federal work authorizations, and they point to a lower fatal crash rate for state CDL holders.