Trump DOT yanks $73M funding from NY for ‘failing’ to vet foreign truck drivers

NY Post ^ | 4/16/26 | Josh Christenson, Vaughn Golden

[Libloather]

The Trump administration is yanking $74 million in federal highway grants from the Empire State for refusing to comply with the feds’ demand that it boot immigrant truck drivers with expired work authorizations off the roads, The Post has learned.

The US Department of Transportation warned Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Department of Motor Vehicles, in a bombshell letter on Thursday, that continued non-compliance could lead Washington to withhold another $147 million in highway funding grants.

“I promised the American people I would hold any state leader accountable for failing to keep them safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers. I’m delivering on that promise today by refusing to fund Governor Hochul’s dangerous, anti-American policies,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy told The Post in a statement.

“My message to New York’s far left leadership is clear: families must be prioritized on American roads.”

The letter, obtained by The Post, asserts the New York DMV “refuses” to comply with the DOT’s previous demands that it assess thousands of commercial driver’s licenses, or CDLs, and remove those belonging to non-residents with expired work authorizations.

A small audit of the DMV by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration last year found that of the approximately 32,000 New York CDLs held by non-residents, half had expiration dates expanding often years beyond when their work papers had lapsed.

“New York’s continued refusal to fix these failures undermines that mission, and we will not allow federal dollars to support a system that falls short of the law,” FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said.

[Salman]

Suddenly one day during the Biden administration, truck driving became one of those jobs "Americans won't do".