During a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration fireside chat-style session Thursday at the Mid-America Trucking Show, FMCSA Chief Counsel Jesse Elison offered an update on the agency’s early priorities under the second Trump Administration, while responding to audience members on “live issues” in trucking, like English proficiency requirements and non-domiciled CDLs.
With regard to those “live issues,” Elison said FMCSA and the Department of Transportation are aware of them, noting they “will be addressed in the near future.”
Elison was asked why FMCSA is not enforcing an out-of-service violation for truck drivers who cannot read and speak English.
[Related: OOIDA urges Congress to act on non-domiciled CDLs, English proficiency]
“I think in the future there will be a lot more attention to this,” he said. “I will say that we do enforce that regulation.”
Audience members rebutted that statement, calling out that drivers are not placed out-of-service if unable to read or speak English. Elison noted, however, that Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspectors are the ones who place drivers OOS, and not FMCSA agents.
Elison went on to add that the English proficiency issue “is absolutely a live issue and will be addressed in the near future.”
An audience member also asked about “non-domiciled CDLs given out to asylum-seekers that are unvetted.”
Another “live issue,” according to Elison, who also noted that CDLs are issued at the state level. “But I will say that they’re probably not unvetted,” he added.
Thursday’s MATS session was not designed as a Q&A, so Elison concluded that he’s looking forward to having more conversations on those topics in the future. “These are really issues, and they’re hot issues,” he said, adding that FMCSA welcomes feedback from the industry.
Ben Siegrist, the Department of Transportation’s Director of Public Liaison and Senior Advisor, was on the two-man panel with Elison and noted that the issues are “not falling by the wayside." With the White House nominating a new FMCSA administrator, neither Siegrist nor Elison wanted to speak too much on particulars in advance of that.
[Related: OOIDA urges Congress to act on non-domiciled CDLs, English proficiency]
FMCSA’s priorities under Trump II
Apart from the impromptu Q&A at the end of the session, Elison and Siegrist highlighted some of the top-level priorities of the DOT and FMCSA under the second Trump Administration.
Both gentlemen asked audience members to keep in mind that the Administration is only nine weeks in and is still in the process of forming its teams within the DOT and FMCSA and figuring out its priorities moving forward.
Elison did highlight one area of focus for FMCSA is making sure the FMCSA workforce “has a renewed focus on due process, has a renewed focus on making sure their inspections and investigations are done fairly, that they’re transparent, that they’re evidence-based.”
He added that FMCSA wants to ensure that’s an emphasis with its state partners and that there is consistency across jurisdictions in enforcement.
Throughout the session at MATS, Elison and Siegrist highlighted that DOT Secretary Sean Duffy “has interest in FMCSA” and understands the challenges the industry faces.
Elison also pointed out that President Donald Trump is pushing a deregulatory agenda in which agencies are required to get rid of 10 regulations for every one new regulation. To that effect, Elison said FMCSA would be “very aggressive and attentive” in analyzing regulations, noting that doesn’t mean FMCSA isn’t going to promulgate regulations, but the ones that do surface will be from a “commonsense, evidence-based approach.”
Freight fraud and fraud in general is another key area FMCSA is looking to address, and Elison touted the updates being made to its registration process with ID verification and more, as detailed in a prior report Thursday.
[Related: Part of anti-fraud bid, FMCSA to introduce new 'one-stop shop' for all carrier business]
