Sponsors (77)
The bill expands the domestic trucking labor pool and standardizes verification to boost oversight, but it shifts costs and recordkeeping burdens to state DMVs, imposes short-term licensing and stricter eligibility that can destabilize workers and employers, and creates potential privacy risks.
Transportation employers, shippers, and U.S. consumers gain increased access to truck drivers because states may license foreign-domiciled workers on employment-based visas to operate commercial vehicles in the U.S., expanding the trucking and logistics labor pool.
State agencies and federal regulators get a uniform verification and recordkeeping process (immigration confirmation, 2-year retention, 48-hour production) that can improve oversight, enforcement, and safety accountability for commercial drivers.
Drivers on most foreign-domiciled CDLs and the employers who rely on them face instability because most licenses are limited to one year or to the applicant's authorized stay, undermining retention and long-term hiring.
State DMVs must conduct immigration checks and produce records quickly, imposing new administrative burdens and costs on state agencies and potentially on taxpayers.
Tighter eligibility rules (requiring specific visa categories or U.S. status for territory residents) will exclude some potentially available workers and complicate hiring for carriers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Permits States, under federal rules, to issue CDLs to foreign- or territory-domiciled applicants who meet new immigration or citizenship requirements and requires verification and record retention.
Introduced October 3, 2025 by David Rouzer · Last progress October 3, 2025
Allows States, under regulations set by the Secretary, to issue commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to people who are domiciled outside the 50 states — including foreign countries and U.S. territories — if they meet new immigration or citizenship requirements. States must verify an applicant’s lawful status or U.S. citizenship/green card status before issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading such CDLs and must keep issuance records for at least two years and produce them to the Secretary within 48 hours on request. For applicants domiciled in foreign countries, the bill requires lawful immigration status and a Secretary-approved visa tied to employment reasons for a CDL; licenses may be valid up to one year or until the person’s authorized U.S. stay ends (whichever is shorter). Applicants domiciled in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands must show U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency, with states confirming that status before action on a CDL.