A coalition of 20 states is in an uproar following Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders, with their primary concern centering on who will operate school buses and public transit systems. The uproar stems from a response penned by the states’ Attorneys General to Duffy’s new CDL rules, as highlighted in a post by SuperTrucker on X: “Incredible. A coalition of 20 states’ Attorney Generals all wrote a response to @SecDuffy’s new CDL rules. Why are 20 states up in arms over this? Probably because they’re using non-domiciled CDL drivers for their school busses and public transit systems.”
The full draft of the response, detailing the states’ objections, is available at https://www.regulations.gov/comment/FMCSA-2025-0622-7571 The states involved—Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—argue that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Interim Final Rule (IFR) will disrupt public and private employers, including state and local governments, who rely on these drivers. The document warns of increased costs, economic disruption, and the loss of livelihoods for thousands of drivers, while also criticizing the IFR for imposing burdensome requirements without proper consultation.
The states’ letter claims these actions harm their ability to transport children to school, maintain mass transit, and support construction and goods transportation. They assert the rule’s sudden implementation, without adhering to advance-consultation and notice-and-comment requirements mandated by Congress, has been temporarily stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which labeled FMCSA’s actions as “likely arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful.” The stay may mitigate some impacts, but the states urge FMCSA to rescind the IFR immediately rather than repromulgate it as a final rule.
Critics question the reliance on non-domiciled drivers, many of whom may lack English proficiency or legal work status, to handle such critical roles. Parents in these states are urged to investigate who is behind the wheel of their children’s school buses. Some argue this boils down to cheap labor, with big business and unions prioritizing low freight rates and campaign donations over American workers’ safety. Calls for lawsuits against the states for injuries caused by “rogue illegal CDLs” are growing, alongside demands to deport these drivers and hire qualified Americans willing to work for fair wages.
