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Duffy Announces Enforcement Action on English Language Proficiency for Truck Drivers, Aug. 26, 2025

August 26, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:22:48

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy held a press conference to announce formal enforcement action against three states for failing to enforce federal English Language Proficiency (ELP) requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the event, alongside Jesse Elison, chief counsel for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Duffy traced the sequence as he stated it: the President’s executive order put roadway safety first; in May the department directed that drivers not proficient in English be taken out of service, and the rule took effect at the end of June, when the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance put the new out-of-service standard into effect for state partners.

He grounded the action in the Florida crash investigated that summer: the driver, he said, had received commercial licenses in Washington and California and had been stopped in New Mexico in July, and in none of those encounters was he taken out of service despite being unable, as Duffy stated it, to speak English or understand road signs. The department’s review, he said, found California, Washington, and New Mexico not in compliance. The action announced — phase one, as he called it — gives the three states 30 days to come into compliance or face withholding of Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding: about $30 million for California, $10 million for Washington, and $7 million for New Mexico, as he stated the figures. Elison detailed the process: FMCSA would serve each state a notice of proposed determination of nonconformity that day, and after 30 days could make a final determination and impose sanctions up to withholding all of the program funding — just over $33 million in California, $10.5 million in Washington, as he stated the fuller figures.

Why it matters

The August 26 action is where Duffy’s English-proficiency campaign — announced in May, in force from late June — acquired its enforcement teeth: named states, a dated 30-day deadline, and a quantified funding lever, opened by the same Florida case that runs through the September 26 non-domiciled CDL initiative and the October 31 enforcement update paged on this site.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the 30-day compliance deadline set August 26, 2025 for California, Washington, and New Mexico, with Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding of roughly $30 million, $10 million, and $7 million respectively stated to be at stake. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Announces Enforcement Action for English Language Proficiency Standards” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered by Secretary Duffy and Chief Counsel Elison at the press conference.