COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE SYSTEM
Congressional Record Vol. 171, No. 203
(Senate - December 4, 2025) PDF
Mrs. HYDE-SMITH. Mr. President, I rise to call attention to a
critical safety issue that affects every American who travels our roads
and highways.
Across the country, we are seeing a disturbing rise in deadly
accidents involving large commercial trucks driven by individuals who
should have never been behind the wheel to begin with, often foreign
nationals in the country illegally who exploited weaknesses in our
commercial driver's license or CDL system.
We have seen the video of the horrific crash in Florida where an
undocumented immigrant driving an 18-wheeler made an illegal U-turn on
the interstate, killing three Americans who should be with us here
today.
In mid-October, a semi-truck driver in California, in the United
States illegally, with an immigration detainer notice, was accused of
being intoxicated when he slammed into multiple vehicles, killing three
people and injuring several more.
Sadly, incidents like this are becoming far too common, and we must
ask why. The answer lies in failed policies.
Under previous Democratic administrations, safety enforcement was
weakened, loopholes were opened, and fraudulent CDL issuance went
unchecked. Under the Obama administration, inspectors were directed to
issue citations rather than take unsafe commercial vehicle drivers
completely off the road--a policy decision that has resulted in loss of
life.
Meanwhile, open border policies of prior administrations would have
allowed illegal immigrants to enter the United States freely which,
combined with lax Federal oversight, has let some States issue CDLs
without proper language or competency testing.
A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit prompted by
President Trump found that multiple States issued nondomiciled CDLs
improperly to unqualified, often foreign drivers, even in some
instances allowing them to keep licenses after their legal status
expired.
In the Florida case, the FMCSA investigation revealed that the driver
had failed the English language proficiency test, answering only 2 out
of the 12 verbal questions correctly. Yet multiple States still allowed
him to hold a valid CDL and operate a commercial vehicle on our roads.
The ongoing FMCSA audit revealed systemic violations by many States--
including California, Washington, and New Mexico--that simply fail to
follow Federal laws and regulations as they issue CDLs, which has
resulted in greater threats to public safety.
After Secretary Duffy's criticism about California's lack of policy
enforcement and threat to revoke Federal funding, California announced
the revocation of 17,000 CDLs that were given to immigrants without
valid visas. This means California has been allowing thousands of
unqualified drivers to operate throughout the country. I thank this
administration and Secretary Duffy for taking action to hold States
accountable for their mistakes.
While some States look the other way, my home State of Mississippi
has tried to rein in this abuse in the trucking industry. Mississippi
has taken decisive action and, in just the last 3 months alone, has
identified 85 illegal drivers and referred them to Immigration and
Customs Enforcement.
The State of Mississippi does not issue nondomiciled licenses and
strictly enforces English language proficiency testing to keep our
roads safe. My State is doing its part, but States cannot do this
alone. The Federal Government must close these loopholes and enforce
the law.
As chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation,
Housing, and Urban Development, I successfully included language in the
fiscal year 2026 bill and report that builds upon the President's
Executive order to strengthen English proficiency requirements for
commercial drivers.
I am also a proud cosponsor of Senator Marshall's Commercial Motor
Vehicle English Proficiency Act to ensure all applicants for CDLs must
pass the English proficiency test in English and not in any other
language.
This commonsense measure would help guarantee that all truckdrivers
can read traffic signs, communicate with law enforcement, and
understand directions clearly and safely.
In addition, I cosponsored Senator Moody's Safer Truckers Act, which
restricts the issuance of CDLs to only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent
residents, and individuals who are authorized for employment by U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration services.
These are commonsense reforms to restore integrity, accountability,
and safety to our highways. At the same time, I commend the Trump
administration for taking action on this front, particularly Secretary
Noem and law enforcement officials who recently carried out Operation
Midway Blitz.
This enforcement action led to the arrest of 223 illegal aliens, 146
of whom were truckdrivers. And just a few weeks ago, ICE announced the
arrest of a man from Uzbekistan with a Pennsylvania CDL who was allowed
in our country by the Biden administration even though he was wanted by
the Government of Uzbekistan because of his links to a terrorist
organization.
Needless to say, seeing ICE and State law enforcement come together
to make America's roads safer is a step in the right direction.
Republicans in the Senate and this administration remain committed to
protecting American lives and keeping our roads safe. One key to do
that is to ensure CDL holders are here legally and are proficient in
the English language and can actually read road signs.
I yield the floor.