Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy delivered a blistering message to Gov. Gavin Newsom this week, and Americans should pay attention. After a deadly crash in Southern California that killed multiple people, the Biden administration’s Transportation Department concluded that California failed to follow new federal safeguards designed to keep dangerous, unvetted drivers off the road.
The crash in Ontario involved a commercial semitrailer and resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries, a tragedy that families in that community will carry forever. Authorities say the driver had been issued a restricted non‑domiciled commercial driver’s license that was later upgraded, a process the federal audit found was handled improperly by California.
Secretary Duffy didn’t mince words: his department’s emergency rule was designed to prevent exactly this sort of outcome, and his team found a disturbing number of noncompliant licenses in California. The DOT argues the state issued or upgraded non‑domiciled CDLs without applying the stricter federal checks required for asylum seekers and other noncitizens, allowing someone who should have been barred from operating a big rig to get behind the wheel.
This isn’t just bureaucratic hair‑splitting — Duffy has already moved to hold California financially accountable, announcing the withholding of federal dollars and threatening much larger cuts unless the state fixes the problem. Those are not empty threats; when Washington ties highway and safety funding to basic compliance, it’s because lives are on the line and California’s lax policies have put motorists at risk.
Make no mistake: this is a policy failure driven by politics. For years, California’s leaders have pushed permissive rules and virtue‑signals while shrugging at consequences for everyday Americans who pay the price when laws and safeguards are ignored. Gov. Newsom and his allies can bluster about compassion, but compassion doesn’t mean endangering grieving families on our freeways.
What must happen next is simple and nonpartisan: California must immediately audit and void noncompliant licenses, enforce the federal SAVE checks and English‑proficiency and safety rules, and stop treating licensing like a political favor. If state officials refuse, federal funding should be withheld until the state takes concrete, verifiable steps to restore the integrity of its CDL program.
Patriotic Americans who care about family safety should demand accountability now — not press releases and talking points from Sacramento. Our highways should be safe for working moms, dads, and kids, and if Washington has to lean on a rogue state to make that happen, so be it; lives matter more than the politics of permissiveness.
