FMCSA Flags Pennsylvania for Non-Domiciled CDL Irregularities
- Brandon Wiseman
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
FMCSA has once again turned its attention to state-level CDL practices, this time issuing a pointed preliminary determination of substantial noncompliance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania over how it has been issuing non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits (CLPs) and CDLs. The nine-page letter, dated November 19, 2025, reads as both a technical audit and a warning shot, signaling that the Agency’s scrutiny of lawful-presence verification and non-domiciled credentialing practices is expanding well beyond the high-profile cases that made headlines earlier this year.
If the Agency’s actions against California, Washington, and New Mexico for ELP & licensing failures set the stage, this Pennsylvania determination confirms that FMCSA’s enforcement posture is broadening to include nearly every aspect of CDL program integrity. As we covered in our prior Trucksafe article analyzing the threatened funding withholdings against those states, FMCSA has made clear it is willing to use its most powerful compliance tools—including financial penalties—to correct what it views as systemic issues. And for anyone who followed our recent Trucksafe LIVE! podcast discussion on MCSAP funding leverage, this Pennsylvania action fits squarely into that trend.
FMCSA’s concerns surfaced during Pennsylvania’s 2025 Annual Program Review, an in-depth evaluation the Agency conducts to ensure each state’s CDL program meets the requirements of federal law. Pennsylvania reported that it currently has more than 12,400 active non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs, a sizeable population for a state whose licensing system plays a major role in serving non-permanent residents.
As FMCSA dug into PennDOT’s records, it began to notice problems —small, repeated errors that, when aggregated, point to deeper gaps in policy, documentation, and technological controls.
The Agency sampled 150 individual non-domiciled CDL transactions and found eight that failed to comply with federal rules. Taken alone, eight might appear statistically insignificant, but with FMCSA's enhanced focus on these issues, this is probelmatic for Pennsylvania. If states overlook something as simple as an expiration date or miscode a lawful permanent resident as a non-domiciled applicant, the entire underlying eligibility system becomes unreliable.
How the Errors Occurred
The story FMCSA lays out in its letter is one of compounding administrative oversights. In some cases, PennDOT issued CDLs that extended months—and in one instance nearly a full year—beyond the expiration dates of the drivers’ lawful-presence documents. In another, PennDOT could not demonstrate that it had reviewed the proper immigration documentation at all, because its licensing system lacked fields to record which specific documents were examined. Staff would enter an “INS expiration date,” but the system stored no information about whether the date came from an EAD, a passport with I-94, or something improper or insufficient.
The Agency also highlighted transactions where PennDOT issued non-domiciled CDLs to lawful permanent residents, a group that federal law requires to receive regular CDLs. Even though these instances represented only a fraction of the records reviewed, FMCSA emphasized that such errors are unacceptable, since an applicant’s immigration category determines which type of credential is legally permissible.
Throughout the determination, FMCSA repeatedly notes that PennDOT staff explained some of these errors as simple typos or system limitations. But in the Agency’s view, that is precisely the problem. Typographical mistakes and system gaps should not be able to produce credentials that violate federal rules. The lack of safeguards—automated or procedural—amounts to what the Agency calls a “breakdown” in Pennsylvania’s issuance process.
FMCSA demands corrective action
The corrective steps that FMCSA outlines are both sweeping and immediate. The Agency has ordered Pennsylvania to halt all issuance, renewal, transfer, or upgrade of non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs until FMCSA approves a corrective action plan. The state must conduct a full internal audit of every aspect of its process—from staff training to system design—to identify how these errors occurred and how many additional credentials may be affected.
Perhaps the most consequential requirement is the directive that Pennsylvania must identify every unexpired non-domiciled CLP or CDL that was issued out of compliance and then void or rescind those credentials before reissuing corrected ones. FMCSA makes clear that it expects the state to examine all 12,000-plus active non-domiciled records to determine which are valid and which are not.
Pennsylvania has 30 days from November 19th to respond to the preliminary determination. That response must either explain why FMCSA’s findings are incorrect or outline a corrective plan that the Agency will accept.
As with its threats against California and other states earlier this year, FMCSA is not shy about the financial consequences. If the Agency ultimately issues a final determination of substantial noncompliance, Pennsylvania risks losing up to four percent of its Federal-aid highway funds beginning in FY 2027—an amount FMCSA estimates at roughly $75.5 million. Continued noncompliance could double that figure.
Even more drastically, FMCSA could decertify Pennsylvania’s entire CDL program, meaning the state would be prohibited from issuing or renewing CDLs of any kind until it comes back into substantial compliance. This would be a nuclear-level outcome rarely seen in CDL program history.
These consequences mirror the funding-withholding mechanisms we analyzed in our prior Trucksafe coverage and discussed extensively on Trucksafe LIVE!, where we broke down how MCSAP funding leverage has become a powerful policy tool in USDOT’s broader enforcement strategy.
A Broader Federal Crackdown
In many ways, this action against Pennsylvania reflects FMCSA’s new enforcement landscape. Fueled in part by Executive Order 14286, the Agency is intensifying its oversight of non-domiciled CDLs nationwide, directing states to tighten document verification procedures and shore up vulnerabilities that could allow fraud, misclassification, or mismatches between lawful-presence records and CDL expiration dates.
FMCSA closes its letter by acknowledging Pennsylvania as an “important partner” but makes no attempt to soften the conclusion: the state must take “immediate” corrective action, and every noncompliant credential must be voided or rescinded and reissued correctly. The determination signals a broader message to other states as well. Just as FMCSA has demonstrated willingness to challenge states over ELDT enforcement, it is now pushing aggressively on the integrity of non-domiciled CDL issuance. The Pennsylvania letter may be only the latest in a series of similar actions as the Agency continues its nationwide compliance sweep. As addressed in our recent article, however, a federal court has temporarily paused FMCSA's Interim Final Rule on non-domiciled CDLs, so we will have to wait to see how this plays out more broadly.
About Trucksafe Consulting, LLC: Trucksafe Consulting is a full-service DOT regulatory compliance consulting and training service. We help carriers develop, implement, and improve their safety programs, through personalized services, industry-leading training, and a library of educational content. Trucksafe also hosts a livestream podcast on its various social media channels called Trucksafe LIVE! to discuss hot-button issues impacting highway transportation. Trucksafe is owned and operated by Brandon Wiseman and Jerad Childress, transportation attorneys who've assisted some of the nation’s leading fleets to develop and maintain cutting-edge safety programs. You can learn more about Trucksafe online at www.trucksafe.com and by following Trucksafe on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Or subscribe to Trucksafe's newsletter for the latest highway transportation news & analysis. Also, be sure to check out eRegs, the first app-based digital version of the federal safety regulations aimed at helping carriers and drivers better understand and comply with the regulations.