FMCSA Withheld $40.7 Million From California Over a Rule That Took Violations From 14 to 48,213
Summary
On October 15, 2025, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration cut off $40,685,225 in truck-safety grant funding to California for not enforcing an English-proficiency rule for commercial drivers — leverage built into the same $489 million-a-year program that pays the inspectors who write the tickets. Revived that June, the rule took recorded violations nationwide from 14 across the two prior years to 48,213 in 2025 alone, per Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data.
The rule that changed the count
Commercial drivers have needed to read English road signs and speak with officers since a regulation, 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2), that dates to the 1970s. What changed in 2025 was enforcement. A 2016 policy memo had told inspectors not to place a driver out of service purely for failing an English check — so for years the rule existed on paper without teeth. On June 25, 2025, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance and reversed that guidance and made English Language Proficiency (ELP) non-compliance an official out-of-service violation again, meaning an inspector who finds a driver can't pass the check can now park the truck on the spot.
The volume of enforcement moved with it. Roadside inspectors recorded just 14 out-of-service violations for ELP non-compliance across all of 2023 and 2024 combined. In the roughly six months after the policy reversed, they issued 12,308 — and by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Foundation's tally, more than 21,000 drivers had been placed out of service for it within a year of the June 2025 change.
View data as table
| 2023-2024, combined | 14 OOS orders | ELP non-compliance not enforced as an OOS violation |
|---|---|---|
| June 25-Dec 31, 2025 | 12,308 OOS orders | first ~6 months after June 25, 2025 policy reversal |
Counting every citation, not just the ones that pulled a driver off the road, data shows 48,213 total ELP violations recorded in 2025 — roughly 3,440 times the two-year total that preceded it. The enforcement wasn't spread evenly. Texas alone accounted for 57.2% of the national total; add New Mexico, Arizona, and California and four states covered 68.4% of every citation written.
View data as table
| Texas | 57.2% | of all 2025 ELP citations nationwide |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico, Arizona, California | 11.2% | combined share, 2025 |
| All other states/territories | 31.6% | combined share, 2025 |
The money behind the enforcers
MCSAP is a formula grant — not competitive, distributed by statute to state and territorial agencies to run the roadside-inspection and carrier- investigation programs that make any of this enforcement possible. 's own accounting shows the program supported 3 million roadside inspections and more than 4,300 investigations across 56 state and territory agencies in fiscal year 2025, funded at $489 million. Take the money away from an agency and, eventually, the inspections stop scaling with it.
That's the lever pulled. In September 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned California, Washington, and New Mexico that an investigation had found each state failing to place drivers out of service for ELP violations as federal guidance required, and gave them 30 days to fix it or lose their MCSAP grants. New Mexico changed its enforcement practice and reached what called "substantial compliance," keeping its funding. California did not, and on October 15, 2025 lost the $40,685,225 outright. Washington remained under review, with $10 million of its own grant on the table.
View data as table
| California | $40,685,225 | withheld Oct. 15, 2025 — did not come into compliance |
|---|---|---|
| Washington | $10,000,000 | at risk pending a 30-day compliance review |
| New Mexico | $0 withheld | reached “substantial compliance,” retained funding |
California has since sued the Department of Transportation over the withholding, arguing the state already enforces the requirement. The dispute doesn't change the mechanics: the same federal account that trains and pays the inspector checking a driver's English is now also the account the federal government can drain if a state enforces the rule on terms Washington doesn't accept.
The takeaway
- A formula grant became a compliance weapon. MCSAP was built to fund routine truck-safety enforcement. In 2025 it also became the mechanism used to compel three states' enforcement practices, withholding or threatening $50.7 million combined.
- The enforcement gap was almost total, then it wasn't. Fourteen out-of-service violations across two years, then 12,308 in about six months — not a gradual tightening but a reinstated policy hitting a system that had gone dormant.
- The rule lands unevenly. Four states wrote 68.4% of the nation's 2025 citations, with Texas alone responsible for more than half — a reminder that a nationwide rule doesn't produce nationwide enforcement volume.
Funding figures describe MCSAP grant amounts tied specifically to the 2025 English Language Proficiency compliance action against California and Washington, as announced by ; they are separate from the program's total $489 million nationwide FY2025 award figure cited above. Violation and citation counts describe roadside-inspection data as compiled and reported by CDLLife and FleetOwner; BlackLeaf could not independently render 's underlying interactive data portal, which requires an in-browser session.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Transportation / , "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Announces Consequences for California's Failure to Enforce English Language Requirements for Truckers" (Oct. 2025) — the $40,685,225 MCSAP funding withheld from California, effective October 15, 2025, and the regulatory basis (49 CFR § 350.231, FY24-25 Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan disapproval). fmcsa.dot.gov
- U.S. Department of Transportation / , "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy to California, Washington, and New Mexico: Enforce English Language Requirements or Lose Federal Funding" (Sept. 2025) — the 30-day compliance window, Washington's $10 million at risk, and New Mexico's retained funding after reaching "substantial compliance." fmcsa.dot.gov
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grant page — FY2025 national totals: $489 million awarded, 3 million roadside inspections and 4,300+ investigations supported, 56 state/territory agencies funded. ai.fmcsa.dot.gov/Grants/MCSAP.aspx
- Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, "Non-Compliance with English Language Proficiency Regulation Takes Effect as an Out-of-Service Driver Violation" (2025) — the June 25, 2025 effective date restoring ELP non-compliance as an out-of-service condition. cvsa.org
- CDLLife, " Data Shows 1,212 Commercial Vehicle Drivers Have Been Taken Out-of-Service for English Language Proficiency Violations" (Aug. 2025), and subsequent CDLLife/FleetOwner reporting through year-end — the 14 (2023-2024 combined) vs. 12,308 (June 25-Dec. 31, 2025) out-of-service counts, the 48,213 total 2025 citations, and the state- level concentration (Texas 57.2%; Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California combined 68.4%), drawn from 's public roadside- inspection enforcement data. cdllife.com
- Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, A&I Online Enforcement Programs — Inspections (public roadside-inspection violation database, filtered to English Language Proficiency violations, nationwide) — the underlying source for the out-of-service and citation counts above. ai.fmcsa.dot.gov
- Land Line Media, "New English-proficiency proposal expected soon" (2026), citing OOIDA Foundation analysis — the tally of more than 21,000 out-of-service orders issued within roughly a year of the June 2025 policy reversal. landline.media
Comments
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The federal government funds the people who inspect commercial trucks through a single formula grant, the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program. In 2025 that grant became something else too: leverage. When the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration () decided California wasn't enforcing a rule requiring commercial drivers to read English road signs and speak with officers, it didn't write a warning letter. It withdrew approval of the state's safety plan and cut off $40,685,225 in MCSAP funding, effective October 15, 2025. That is the same grant program that paid for 3 million roadside inspections and more than 4,300 carrier investigations nationwide in fiscal year 2025 — the very labor the rule now runs through.