Washington is facing tension with several states. And it has been the DOT (Department of Transportation) that has put Colorado against the ropes, demanding the immediate withdrawal of thousands of CDL licenses that were issued irregularly. And be careful, because if they do not withdraw them, they will lose 24 million dollars in federal infrastructure funds.
According to a federal audit, nearly 22 percent of the non domiciled commercial licenses issued in Colorado do not meet regulations, and this must be corrected or there will be consequences.
Ultimatum
Sean Duffy, the Secretary of Transportation, has been very clear. He accused the state of having granted commercial driver licenses to people who did not meet the legal requirements, including non resident foreign nationals.
From Washington they insist that Colorado had more than enough time to fix it and did not do so, and there is no more time. Either the permits are revoked or the funding is lost.
Colorado under the federal spotlight
In Denver they have acknowledged that there have been mistakes. Governor Jared Polis says they are already working on an internal review and that affected drivers will begin receiving official notifications shortly.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Motor Vehicles is not issuing new non domiciled CDL licenses in an attempt to contain the problem.
And California?
It is not spared either. California has also had problems with 17,000 CDL licenses and has ended up in court because several civil organizations have filed a class action lawsuit against the state.
Among them are the Sikh Coalition and the Asian Law Caucus, who accuse authorities of acting disproportionately, since many truck drivers had legal work authorization, had been passing checks for years, and suddenly found themselves without a job and therefore without a livelihood.
The blow to transportation
And what many politicians have not considered is that this goes far beyond a clash between the state and the federal government. Revoking licenses all at once can worsen the shortage of truck drivers, and there are not many to begin with, especially considering they work across the country to ensure there are no shortages of any kind of resources.
Industry associations are talking about uncertainty for workers, but also about delays and price increases for the rest of citizens. We will all feel the impact, companies, businesses, and of course the ones who will pay the price will be consumers.
Road safety or political standoff?
From the federal government they repeat that it is about protecting road safety, that compliance with the law is above everything else, and that they cannot allow drivers with irregular licenses. But if we look at it with perspective, we see other things. There is much more politics than technical reasoning here, and the problem could have been addressed through a much more orderly regularization and without economic threats, but for some reason this government believes the enemy always comes from outside.
A precedent that could change the rules
If Washington carries out the cut, other states could be next. It now seems that the new battlefield is these licenses, right at a time when migration and federal control are being widely discussed. Curious, very curious.
For now, Colorado will have to speed up the withdrawal of these licenses or assume the multimillion dollar cut being threatened from Washington. What happens in the coming weeks will set the direction of this conflict. Hopefully, from Washington, they will think about everything that is at stake, which is not only the stability of those thousands of migrant people and their families.