President Donald Trump’s administration — which within the last year has frozen or rescinded more than $2 billion in funds for Illinois infrastructure projects — is threatening to withhold even more money from the Land of Lincoln, this time in federal highway dollars.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Tuesday that it was threatening to withhold $128 million in highway funds because a federal audit had revealed illegally issued commercial drivers licenses in Illinois.
The Illinois Secretary of State’s office, however, said in a statement it “believes its CDL issuance policies and practices are substantially compliant” with federal requirements “and will not justify cutting federal highway funding.”
In a letter to Gov. JB Pritzker and Kevin Duesterhaus, the Secretary of State’s director of driver services, the Trump administration said its CDL audit had revealed the state had issued CDLs that extended beyond the expiration of the drivers’ permission to remain in the country. The feds also accused Illinois of issuing nondomiciled CDLs without providing evidence it had verified the drivers’ permission to be in the U.S.
The feds have previously threatened to withhold federal dollars from other states, including New York and Minnesota, over similar alleged issues.
Nondomiciled commercial drivers licenses are issued to people with permission to be in the U.S., but who are not citizens or permanent residents, according to the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.
The Transportation Department’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is giving Illinois 30 days to respond by either demonstrating that it’s taking “corrective action” — including by pausing issuing new nondomiciled commercial drivers licenses and voiding all noncompliant CDLs — or by arguing that the federal agency’s findings are incorrect.
On Tuesday, the Secretary of State’s office said it had already paused issuing nondomiciled CDLs, as have other states, following an FMCSA rule change regarding those licenses in September.
When defending its compliance with federal regulations, the Secretary of State’s office said it believed that the FMCSA was not recognizing that nondomiciled CDL holders in its audit had been granted extensions of their work authorizations.
If the federal agency ultimately determines the state to be out of compliance, it could withhold the federal highway funds or even decertify the state’s CDL program, the letter from FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs threatens.
“The last administration looked the other way as states blatantly defied federal laws when unlawfully issuing licenses to foreign drivers,” Barrs said in a statement Tuesday. “(Transportation) Secretary (Sean) Duffy and I will be relentless in our agenda to reinstate commonsense safety standards that protect our truckers and American families.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly rescinded, frozen or threatened to withhold transportation dollars in Illinois, giving a variety of stated rationales, including diversity practices in contracting, safety issues on the CTA and unspecified “fraud.”
Within the last six months, the feds have frozen almost $2 billion in federal grant money for the Chicago Transit Authority’s long-planned Red Line Extension. The Federal Transit Administration has threatened to withhold another $50 million from the CTA over safety concerns and most recently rescinded a $100 million grant for electric vehicle chargers that was set to go to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
It’s not the first time the feds have targeted dollars related to commercial drivers licenses specifically; earlier this month, the White House said it was rescinding a $3.6 million grant that the secretary of state’s office said was meant to fund various priorities related to CDLs, including studying the prevention of traffic crashes and fatalities related to large trucks and buses; implementing a new test proctoring program that would mitigate fraud on the written CDL exam; and translating the written CDL exam into Spanish.
Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias slammed those cuts in a news release Tuesday, calling them illegal.
“The Trump administration is trying to cut funding for improving road safety, preventing crashes and saving lives in Illinois,” Giannoulias said in a statement. “Attempts to cut this critical funding for political purposes is not only vindictive and irresponsible, but illegal.”
Giannoulias also criticized the FMCSA’s September rule change — which has been challenged in court — that limited those eligible for nondomiciled CDLs, citing concerns from Illinois farmers and truckers regarding the pause on new nondomicile CDLs.
“The funding cuts come at a time when the actions of FMCSA have already wreaked havoc on state CDL programs throughout the country,” Giannoulias said.
A representative for the governor’s office did not immediately comment Tuesday.
tasoglin@chicagotribune.com
