Federal Audits Find Thousands of Improperly Issued CDLs, States Given 30 Days

The crackdown on non-domiciled CDLs has moved from writing rules to checking the books, and the early numbers are rough.

What the audits found

Secretary Duffy's team has been auditing how individual states handed out non-domiciled commercial licenses, and several states are not coming out looking good. In North Carolina, reviewers found that more than half of the non-domiciled CDLs they looked at had been issued illegally. In Illinois it was close to one in five. In Minnesota, about a third.

The consequences

The response from Washington has teeth. States that fall short are being handed 30 day deadlines to revoke the bad licenses and fix their process. If they miss the deadline, federal highway money is on the line. Illinois is staring at a possible loss of $128 million. Minnesota could lose more than $30 million. Pennsylvania has been warned about $75 million.

For most drivers who earned their license the right way, this does not change your day. But it shows how serious the federal government is about cleaning up the licensing system, and it is worth knowing if you drive in or through a state that is now scrambling to comply.