Free Republic

The Department’s nationwide audit exposed that Pennsylvania has issued licenses to ineligible and unqualified foreign drivers WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today announced that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) found Pennsylvania violated existing federal safety regulations by issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) illegally – including to ineligible foreigners without verifying their legal status. The Department will withhold nearly $75 million in federal funding if the state does not immediately revoke these illegally issued licenses and correct dangerous failures USDOT identified in its CDL program. ICE’s recent arrest of a suspected terrorist illegally in...

Zohran Mamdani campaigned to become the mayor of New York City by promising a series of expensive plans including free child care, rent freezes and free buses. As I pointed out here, the cost of these proposals is unknown but is expected to be wildly expensive. The free child care element could cost the city around $6 billion per year, equal to the entire NYPD budget. His plan for free buses is expected to cost another $800 million, but again it could be more.So where is he going to get the money to pay for all of this? Well, most...

Zohran Mamdani campaigned on making MTA buses free, freezing rents, launching universal childcare, and raising the minimum wage to $30.New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani promised during his campaign that he would make public buses free for New Yorkers as part of a wide-ranging list of ambitious goals, which included freezing rents, creating no-cost child care, and raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. The democratic socialist, who turned 34 years old last month, beat former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election on Nov. 4. The closely-watched...

Two planes collided on the tarmac at LaGuardia on Friday evening, according to The New York Post. This is the second time that planes have collided on the taxiway at LaGuardia this month. A United Plane bumped into another United jet on taxiway amid delays due to bad weather and staffing shortages on Friday evening. Emergency vehicles responded to the scene. No injuries were reported. The New York Post reported: Two planes collided on the tarmac at LaGuardia Friday as the airport grappled with intense delays brought on by weather and staffing shortages, The Post has learned. A United Airlines...

Investigators descended overnight on the New Jersey neighborhood of the terrorist who went on a rampage in a rental truck along a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center, killing eight people and injuring 11 others. Cops surrounded a block in Paterson, the hometown of Sayfullo Saipov, 29, an Uzbek immigrant who was shot by a cop when he jumped out of the truck brandishing fake but realistic-looking pistols and shouting “Allahu Akbar!” Authorities in Passaic County also cordoned off an area that includes a mosque, some storefronts and several other residences, as well as a parking lot at...

Do you spend too much time in your car? Your local state authorities think you do — and they’re quietly pushing through laws that will give them the power to do something about it. Meet Massachusetts Senate Bill S.2246. Introduced by state Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem, it sets the stage for a future where the government tracks and potentially limits how many miles you drive each year. This isn’t a fringe proposal — it’s working its way through the legislature right now, and similar ideas are being tested in other states across the country. Is this really about emissions...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Friday that $679 million in federal funding has been withdrawn for 12 “doomed” offshore wind projects – including three in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The scrapped funding includes $10.5 million for Connecticut’s Bridgeport Port Authority Operations and Maintenance Wind Port project, $20.5 million for New Jersey’s Wind Port at Paulsboro and $48 million for Staten Island’s Arthur Kill Terminal. The Trump administration plans to spend the withdrawn funds on “real infrastructure” and “restoring American maritime dominance.” “Wasteful, wind projects are using resources that could otherwise go towards revitalizing America’s maritime industry,” Duffy said...

FBI: Terror suspect plotted fuel attackAl-Marabh planned to blow up tunnelJail informant reported `martyr' bid JOHN SOLOMONASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Nabil al-Marabh, who ran a print shop with his uncle in Toronto, plotted to steal a fuel tanker truck and blow it up in one of the heavily travelled tunnels between New Jersey and Manhattan, FBI documents allege. Al-Marabh, 36, was arrested Sept. 19, 2001, in Chicago in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. His arrest prompted an RCMP raid of his uncle's copy shop on Charles St. in Toronto. The U.S. deported him...

The Department of Transportation is taking action to expedite permitting for infrastructure projects nationwide, minimize delays, and clear the backlog of projects awaiting federal approval, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. The agency has historically had some of slowest permitting timelines across the federal government. According to government data, the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Aviation Administration each take more than seven years to complete reviews while the Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit Administration each take more than five years to approve projects. At the same time, the average age of America's bridges is 47 years, meaning a bulk...

WASHINGTON — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg failed to replace outdated air-traffic-control systems while in office — with his agency instead shelling out tens of billions of dollars on a DEI agenda, according to federal spending records and airline-industry insiders. What his department was really interested in was handing out hundreds of diversity, equity and inclusion grants totaling more than $80 billion over four years — at least half of the DOT’s entire budget for a typical fiscal year, records show.

Florida operates three separate rail systems: Tri‑Rail, Brightline, and FEC Freight. Tri‑Rail currently runs on the old CSX corridor to the west, while Brightline and FEC Freight share the Florida East Coast (FEC) main line. But now, Tri‑Rail is actively testing on the FEC tracks — with dozens of daily tests into downtown Miami Central on the same rails used by Brightline and freight since June 2023 . Moreover, under the Coastal Link plan, Tri‑Rail is slated to begin regular passenger service along this corridor — effectively merging all three rail services onto one aging track . Picture this: 110...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy struck a blow at radical LGBTQ activism as “Pride Month” ended. Duffy sent a letter to all 50 state governors, the D.C. mayor, and Puerto Rico’s governor, a letter which he also shared with The Daily Signal. Trump’s transportation secretary told the governors to work on removing distractions, including woke political symbols, from roads and intersections. In the letter, Duffy wrote, “Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork. Today I am calling on governors in every state to ensure that roadways, intersections, and crosswalks are kept free of distractions.” He added, “Far too many...

The streetcar left much to be desired. The Democrat-run city of Washington, D.C., is derailing its $200 million boondoggle streetcar system only 10 years after the streetcars began to operate. Oh well, $200 million of our hard-earned taxpayer funds down the drain — on to the next expensive wasteful project! The costly D.C. streetcar system, only 2.2 miles long, is going into the trash heap 15 years after the track was first laid and only a decade into operations. The streetcars were justified originally as being more “environmentally friendly” — Dems love to shove in the climate hoax everywhere —...

The Missouri Legislature had once again killed a bill to restore the ability to legally exercise rights protected by the Second Amendment on public transportation. Senator Schnelting has been promoting these bills for years. They make progress, then they are killed by inaction. From mo.gov: On April 10, HB328 passed the House, 106 to 45. HB328 was sent to the Senate. On April 22, the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety committee held a hearing on the bill. On April 24, an “SCS” (Senate Committee Substitute) was passed. No other action was taken on the bill before the Senate adjourned...

When Pete Buttigieg was the Secretary of Transportation under President Biden (and whoever was actually making the calls at the White House during that time), one of the more glaring examples of bloated bureaucracy came in the form of what was required in order to qualify for government grants for infrastructure projects: Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order mandating that the beneficiaries of 40 percent of all federal climate and environmental programs should come from "underserved communities." The order also established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which monitors agencies such as the Department of...

On April 10, 2025, the Missouri House of Representatives passed gun law reform bill HB 328. The bill is essentially the same as Senate Bill SB 77, put forward by Senator Schnelting. The bills remove the ban on carrying weapons aboard most public transportation for people with concealed carry permits. Similar bills were filed in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.In 2022, the Senate leadership killed the bill due to a lack of attention. The 2024 version of the bill, HB 1708, did not pass the House. The bill has an excellent chance of passing if it can be brought to...

The Trump administration is finally tackling an issue that has plagued the nation's air traffic control system for decades. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy revealed on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning that a "brand new state-of-the-art system" is on the way to replace an infrastructure that has remained largely unchanged for 25 to 30 years. An official announcement is coming in the next few days, but Duffy explained what’s going to happen and why. "We use copper wires, floppy disks — I mean, it's atrocious, the system we use," Duffy stated. While he reassured the public that the current system...

A fiery pileup turned a quiet Friday morning into a nightmare as an inferno raged inside an Interstate 80 tunnel in southwestern Wyoming claiming at least two lives, and leaving five others seriously injured, forcing a total shutdown of the highway. Anyone trapped in the tunnel would have been forced to escape on foot through the smoke and darkness. Rescuers desperately tried to reach victims, but the tunnel’s structure - now compromised by falling concrete and searing heat - turned into a death trap.

Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) has renewed his call to repeal a little-known section of the 2021 Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) containing a federal mandate that all vehicles sold after 2026 must have a kill switch. In a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on Wednesday, Massie questioned Michael Hanson who was representing the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) over the requirement for a kill switch that can disable vehicles based on a driver’s performance. Hanson affirmed that section 24220 the IIJA directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require advanced impaired driving detection...

January 2025 – including the first 10 days of Donald Trump’s second term as President of the United States – likely marks the beginning of substantial changes in federal transportation law and regulation, including a number of potentially disruptive changes to regulation of the motor vehicle industry and related funding and incentives. Republican control of the White House and both Houses of Congress, combined with a federal judiciary increasingly skeptical of expansive federal agency regulation, make this a ripe time for major changes in federal law and regulation, including regulation of transportation. President Trump and his supporters have expressed strong...