U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is moving to make federal English-language proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers permanent, saying the rules should not be left vulnerable to changes by future administrations.
In a post on X, Duffy said he is proposing to “lock English proficiency rules into federal regulations” so that future administrations cannot reverse them.
The announcement builds on the Trump administration’s broader effort to strengthen enforcement of existing requirements for commercial motor vehicle drivers. Federal law already requires commercial drivers to be able to read and speak English sufficiently to communicate with the public, understand highway traffic signs and signals, respond to official inquiries and complete required reports and records.
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The Department of Transportation began enforcing the requirement more aggressively in 2025 after the Trump administration moved to reverse a 2016 policy under former President Barack Obama that had instructed inspectors not to place drivers out of service solely for English-proficiency violations. Duffy said more than 26,000 drivers have already been removed from the road for failing to demonstrate English proficiency. That figure has also been reported by the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times, based on information from the Transportation Department.
The administration has linked the enforcement campaign to broader concerns about the qualifications of some non-domiciled commercial drivers.
In February, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration finalized a rule restricting eligibility for non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits and commercial driver’s licenses to foreign-domiciled individuals with certain employment-based nonimmigrant statuses. The rule was intended to strengthen screening and verification of foreign drivers. The federal government has also moved against commercial licenses it says were improperly issued. The Transportation Department has said that roughly 30,000 commercial licenses were canceled because they were issued illegally, according to reporting on the administration’s broader trucking crackdown.
Duffy’s latest proposal would go beyond enforcement guidance by seeking to place the English-language requirement more firmly within federal regulations. The move is part of a wider administration effort to reshape the commercial trucking industry around driver qualification, immigration status and safety requirements.
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Duffy has repeatedly argued that English proficiency is necessary because truck drivers must be able to read road signs and communicate with law enforcement, inspectors and emergency personnel. The Transportation Department has similarly described the requirement as a roadway safety measure. The proposal is also likely to affect immigrant truck drivers, who comprise a significant portion of the U.S. trucking workforce. Recent federal actions impacting non-domiciled CDLs have already drawn criticism from immigrant advocacy groups and prompted legal challenges.
The administration, however, says the rules are focused on driver qualifications and public safety rather than nationality.
Duffy’s latest announcement signals that the Trump administration intends to make the English-language requirement a lasting component of federal trucking policy rather than an enforcement approach that a future administration can change.