{"id":331571,"date":"2026-08-28T03:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331571\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T03:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:40:21","slug":"fmcsa-new-york-ready-to-rumble-over-non-domiciled-cdl-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/331571\/","title":{"rendered":"FMCSA, New York ready to rumble over non-domiciled CDL rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state of New York and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration<\/a> are headed toward oral arguments at the end of next month in their legal battle over the federal cutoff of funds to the Empire State over a conflict regarding the state\u2019s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs and Commercial Learning Permits (CLPs).<\/p>\n

With FMCSA having filed its brief to the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last week, both sides have spelled out their case in preparation for oral arguments on September 28 in lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The key issue, according to the state\u2019s brief, is just how long a non-domiciled CDL issued by New York\u2013or by extension, any state\u2013can stay in effect if its duration does not line up with how long the non-domiciled CDL holder is legally permitted to be in the U.S., as the vast majority of non-domiciled CDL holders are foreign nationals in the country, legally or not.<\/p>\n

While New York\u2019s brief makes that the key issue, it is somewhat less emphasized by FMCSA in its filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the April decision by the Department of Transportation<\/a> (DOT) to withhold approximately $73 million in federal funds as a result of the dispute with New York, the state quickly filed suit<\/a> in the Second Circuit challenging the action.<\/p>\n

While the core of the federal government\u2019s argument was known in April when the action was taken by the DOT, the state responded that the action was \u201cpolitical payback.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does the rule say?<\/p>\n

It is in the brief filed by the state that some meat is put on New York\u2019s objections. Its key argument is that the action by the DOT is enforcing a rule that does not exist.<\/p>\n

In a December 2025 \u201cpreliminary determination of substantial noncompliance,\u201d according to the state\u2019s brief, FMCSA asserts that a review of New York practices had \u201cuncovered evidence of systemic policy, procedural and programming errors\u201d in a sampling of New York licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, FMCSA observed that 101 of those licenses included expiration dates that exceeded the period of validity shown on the drivers\u2019 lawful presence documents presented at the time of license issuance,\u201d New York said in its brief. \u201cCiting no authority, FMCSA asserted that (New York\u2019s Department of Motor Vehicles) was required to \u2018make the period of validity of the non-domiciled commercial learning permits or CDL less than or equal to the period of validity of the driver\u2019s lawful presence document(s).\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is nothing in the law to require that, according to the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFMCSA points to no regulatory text that affirmatively required the State to match license expiration dates with the lawful-presence documentation provided with drivers\u2019 CDL applications,\u201d New York says in its brief. \u201cThe principal provision that FMCSA relies upon (which it says can be found in 49 C.F.R. \u00a7 384.212) does not address expiration dates. Nor does any other regulatory provision incorporated therein.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implicit or explicit<\/p>\n

New York sums up the FMCSA argument in its brief. \u201cFMCSA nevertheless claims that this supposed expiration-matching rule was implicit in its prior regulations because a contrary interpretation would render \u2018meaningless\u2019 and \u2018inconsequential\u2019 the regulatory provisions that require CDL and CLP applicants to verify their lawful presence at the time of license issuance.\u201d But earlier Supreme Court precedents on funding requirements must be made \u201cclearly,\u201d with New York putting that word in italics.<\/p>\n

Citing another part of federal law, \u00a7 383.73(f)(2), New York argues that \u201cstate procedures\u201d for the issuance of CDLs for domiciled and non-domiciled persons, and by extension their expiration date, can not be any different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNotably, the requirement that a CDL issued by a state be valid for no more than eight years\u2026 presumptively applies to both nondomiciled and domiciled licenses alike,\u201d the state says.<\/p>\n

The state does not argue anywhere that the CDLs in question did not exceed the length of a recipient\u2019s legal window for staying in the U.S. Its argument is that it isn\u2019t part of the law.<\/p>\n

But the DOT\u2019s brief goes right to that issue in its brief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the agency conducted an audit of New York\u2019s program, it says in its brief filed last week, it found that \u201cmore than half turned out to have been issued with expiration dates well past the period for which the license-holders could demonstrate, at the point they applied for the CDLs, that they were lawfully present in the United States. In several cases, CDLs were issued for seven or eight years longer than the applicants\u2019 demonstrated periods of lawful presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOT\u2019s brief says it was told by New York that the CDL\u2019s had \u201coverlong expiration dates\u201d because its system doesn\u2019t check how long a holder of a license is allowed to stay in the U.S.<\/p>\n

No cooperation<\/p>\n

Another charge in the DOT brief is that New York refused to work with FMCSA to get to a point where the federal agency would withdraw its determination that the state was out of compliance with federal law.<\/p>\n

FMCSA\u2019s argument in its brief about what the law says is in its summary of an \u201cinformal conference\u201d between the agency and New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At that meeting in February, according to the brief, \u201cFMCSA underscored that because States could only issue non-domiciled CDLs to applicants who presented unexpired proof of lawful presence, the credentials the DMV had issued with expiration dates exceeding the validity of the documentation presented were improperly issued.\u201d It says it laid out a series of steps New York needed to take to get into compliance, which New York refused to adopt.<\/p>\n

The Final Determination of Substantial Noncompliance followed in April, which led to the withdrawal of the federal funds and New York\u2019s intention to fight the action in federal court.<\/p>\n

The FMCSA brief is far less specific in what the law says regarding an alignment between the expiration of a CDL and how many months or years a CDL or CLP holder is allowed to be in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its summary of its argument, it seems to suggest that the state\u2019s non-cooperation was more of an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DMV based its refusal on its disagreement with FMCSA\u2019s interpretation of the provision limiting the maximum duration of non-domiciled CDLs,\u201d the state writes. \u201cThat disagreement is largely beside the point, because the DMV was obligated to work with FMCSA toward resolution of the issues identified.\u201d<\/p>\n

But then it immediately adds that \u201cthe DMV misreads the governing federal regulations, which link issuance of a CDL to lawful presence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hageman bill on the issue<\/p>\n

Although one part of the battle between New York and FMCSA is not in dispute\u2013that the agency audited the Empire State\u2019s records\u2013Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman last week introduced a bill mandating such inspections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She dubbed her bill the Strengthening Transportation Oversight and Preventing (STOP) Improper Licensing Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill requires federal safety regulators to audit states issuing non-domiciled commercial driver\u2019s licenses to illegal aliens and unqualified drivers,\u201d a prepared statement released by Hageman\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Hageman\u2019s release included testimonials on the legislation by a series of key Washington trucking associations: the American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association, and the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The general consensus in Washington is that with the midterm elections close enough that their November 4 date is starting to be discussed in the number of days or weeks away<\/a> rather than months, no significant legislation is likely to be passed in this Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hageman is the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Wyoming, seeking to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis, and she is expected to coast to victory.<\/p>\n

More articles by John Kingston<\/a><\/p>\n

Likely BMO swan song shows trucking credit strengthening<\/a><\/p>\n

A newcomer to Roadcheck driver violations top 5: speaking English<\/a><\/p>\n

One man paints challenging outlook for brokers\u2019 insurance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state of New York and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration are headed toward oral arguments at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25308,44947,9,24,55,54,56,124768],"class_list":["post-331571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cdl","tag-federal-motor-carrier-safety-administration","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rep-harriet-hageman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}