By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

California, New Mexico and Washington could risk losing federal funding if they fail to enforce English language proficiency requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.

The move comes on the heels of an Aug. 12 deadly Florida Turnpike crash involving an 18-wheeler making an unauthorized U-turn. The driver, Harjinder Singh, failed an ELP assessment during an interview with the Federal Motor Carrier Administration following the accident. Singh missed 10 of 12 verbal questions on the proficiency test and was only able to correctly identify one of four traffic signs, according to officials.

During a Tuesday morning news conference, Duffy said the DOT is giving the three states 30 days to comply before withholding “up to 100% of funding” from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program.

“States don’t get to pick and choose which federal safety rules to follow,” said Duffy. “As we saw with the horrific Florida crash that killed three, when states fail to enforce the law, they put the driving public in danger. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking aggressive action to close these safety gaps, hold states accountable, and make sure every commercial driver on the road is qualified to operate a 40-ton vehicle.”

The DOT says that an investigation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration found “significant failures” by the three states to “properly place drivers out-of-service for ELP violations.” They added that the California Highway Patrol has “publicly stated it has no intention of following this important federal regulation.”

The DOT noted multiple ELP violations involving the three states between June 25 and Aug. 12. Duffy signed an order in May providing guidelines to “strengthen” English proficiency enforcement for truckers.

The secretary’s latest announcement comes as Duffy pushes a DOT nationwide audit of “non-domiciled commercial driver’s license issuance.”

Singh was ruled to be an unauthorized alien by Florida Judge Lauren Sweet. Singh reportedly entered the U.S. via the southern border illegally in 2018 and was able to obtain a CDL in California. His attempts to obtain work authorization were rejected in 2020 by the first Trump administration, according to Homeland Security.

Singh is due back in court on Wednesday and is facing six charges – three each of vehicular homicide and manslaughter. He was denied bail after being deemed a “flight risk.”