Colorado faces $24M federal funding cut over illegal commercial driver's licenses

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DENVER (AP) — The head of the U.S. Department of Transportation threatened Monday to withhold $24 million in federal funding from the state of Colorado for what he described as a slow response to a major violation of federal commercial driver's license regulations.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pointed to a nationwide audit conducted in October that found about 22% of the commercial licenses doled out by Colorado to immigrants were done so illegally, many to Mexican nationals — a practice that's prohibited under federal law.

Duffy accused Colorado of “slow walking” the required purge of these licenses. He said the state has failed to complete a full audit, provide a complete accounting of affected drivers, or revoke the invalid credentials despite being notified of non-compliance.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called it a case of “crossed-wires,” saying that if Duffy had reached out, he would know that the state has “finished the investigation and we are conducting a final review of the findings, with letters likely going out this week to CDL holders whose credentials were improperly issued.”

He said in a statement that the state is working quickly to revoke these licenses.

In addition to Duffy's ultimatum, he also noted that the Transportation Department has the authority to decertify Colorado's entire CDL program if the state doesn't act swiftly.

“Every day that goes by is another day unqualified, unvetted foreign truckers are jeopardizing the safety of you and your family,” Duffy said in a statement.

Polis, a two-term Democrat, has been at odds with the Trump administration in recent months. Tensions flared as recently as this past weekend when the Trump administration denied disaster declaration requests following wildfires and flooding earlier this year. Last week, Polis also criticized the administration's plans to dismantle a federal climate research lab located in the state.

Colorado’s Division of Motor Vehicles has paused the issuance and renewal of term-limited non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learner’s permits indefinitely, The Denver Post reported last week. That pause is expected to remain in place pending an audit of all such licenses to ensure compliance with federal regulations.

Duffy has threatened federal highway funding for other states, too, in his effort to make sure truck drivers and bus drivers are qualified to either haul passengers or 80,000 pounds (36,000 kilograms) of cargo down the highway.

New York was the fourth state run by a Democratic governor to be called out publicly earlier this month. Questions also have been raised about similar practices in California, Pennsylvania and Minnesota.

Letters also have gone out from the agency to Republican-run Texas and South Dakota.

Duffy launched the review this summer, but it became more prominent after officials reported that a truck driver who was not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people in August.

The rules on these licenses the Transportation Department is enforcing have been in place for years. According to the federal audit, it was discovered that in some instances states may not have even checked a driver’s immigration status before issuing a license.

Since Duffy began pressing the issue in California, that state has revoked some 21,000 commercial driver’s licenses that were issued improperly.