{"id":754489,"date":"2026-04-26T13:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/754489\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T13:55:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T13:55:36","slug":"ny-sues-trump-admin-after-it-pulls-73m-in-highway-funding-for-not-revoking-non-citizen-drivers-licenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/754489\/","title":{"rendered":"NY sues Trump admin after it pulls $73M in highway funding for not revoking non-citizen drivers licenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York filed suit<\/a> Friday against the Trump administration after it pulled $73 million from the state\u2019s federal highway funding after the state refused to revoke commercial driver\u2019s licenses for non-citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The suit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by Attorney General Letitia James, is the latest move in an ongoing fight between New York and federal government over the state\u2019s policy of allowing non-citizen residents to hold commercial drivers licenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York allows people who are not citizens, but are legally in the country and hold federal work authorization, to hold commercial driver\u2019s licenses, or CDLs. Per directives from the Trump administration, the state in February limited its issuance of CDLs to only non-citizens who held H-2A, H-2B or E-2 visas, but has declined to to revoke CDLs from non-citizens who already had them and only hold federal work authorization and not one of those visas.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has been critical of New York\u2019s policy to allow non-citizens who don\u2019t hold one of those three visas to hold CDLs, calling them dangerous drivers without pointing to broad evidence showing such. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has pushed back against the Trump administration\u2019s claims and holds the state is in full compliance with federal rules surrounding CDLs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

James\u2019 suit alleges the federal government\u2019s refusal to disperse the funding is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, outside of the government\u2019s authority and unsupported by substantial evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong other flaws, [the federal government\u2019s] final determination is predicated on an erroneous reading of its own long-standing regulations governing the issuance of CDLs to nondomiciled individuals, and the relevant standards for establishing a finding of substantial noncompliance,\u201d the suit reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to the attorney general\u2019s suit, the U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said withholding the highway funding was to hold the state accountable \u201cfor failing to keep [Americans] safe from unvetted, unqualified foreign drivers,\u201d and because the Trump administration was \u201crefusing to fund Governor Hochul\u2019s dangerous, anti-American policies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy message to New York\u2019s far left leadership is clear: families must be prioritized on American roads,\u201d Duffy said in a statement.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Hochul said the Trump administration\u2019s pulling of the federal highway funding was not based on safety decisions, as the state is following current federal rules when issuing CDLs. She called it purely a political move.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York has always followed federal rules when issuing CDLs, something even the previous Trump Administration verified year after year,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cRipping away money that goes towards critical safety upgrades on our roads is reckless and it is illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $73 million pulled by the Trump administration would have been used to \u201cprovide for the safety, maintenance, and reliability of New York\u2019s entire transportation system,\u201d according to the suit, which says that even delays to the state getting the funds \u201cendanger the safety of motorists and pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suit adds that, as things currently stand, New York could be set to lose $147 million in federal highway funds annually in future years.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

James said the federal government was putting New York\u2019s safety and infrastructure at risk by pulling the funding.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers depend on safe, reliable roads and bridges to get to work, take their kids to school, and keep our economy moving. The administration cannot promise funding to our state and then abruptly yank it away,\u201d James said. \u201cBy cancelling this funding, the federal government is putting jobs and communities at risk.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York filed suit Friday against the Trump administration after it pulled $73 million from the state\u2019s federal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":754490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,239815,310346,3228,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,292073,4352,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,212564],"class_list":["post-754489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-cdls","tag-law","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-transporation","tag-trump-administration","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-usdot"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116471354234653268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}