Thursday, August 20, was a busy day for commercial driver's license records. In the House, Wyoming Republican Harriet Hageman introduced a bill that would send FMCSA auditors into every state's non-domiciled CDL files and cut off federal safety money to states that don't answer. In Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga signed a temporary restraining order telling the Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security they cannot take the CDL database of 21 states — for now.
The bill: audits, error rates, and an all-or-nothing penalty
H.R. 10123, the Strengthening Transportation Oversight and Preventing Improper Licensing Act — the STOP Improper Licensing Act — was referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee the day it was filed. It is short, and its mechanics are specific.
What the STOP Act would require
Within three years of enactment, FMCSA audits every state's non-domiciled CDL issuance using a random sample of licenses, with emphasis on two failures: licenses left active after the holder's lawful presence expired, and licenses issued without verifying lawful presence in the first place.
States get the findings and 30 days to comment; within 90 days FMCSA publishes the results and reports to Congress.
FMCSA then issues corrective measures. States have 60 days to confirm implementation or submit a corrective action plan.
Error rate between 10% and 25% of the sample: a follow-up audit within two years. Above 25%: annual audits for three years.
A state that doesn't respond in 60 days gets a 10-day warning, then a final determination of 'substantial noncompliance' — and FMCSA 'shall withhold all Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration funding from such State' until it complies.
“ The STOP Improper Licensing Act… will help identify and address compliance lapses in the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs. ”
OOIDA, the Truckload Carriers Association and the Wyoming Trucking Association have endorsed the bill. It lands on top of an enforcement campaign that is already running: FMCSA's February 2026 final rule limits non-domiciled CDLs to holders of H-2A, H-2B and E-2 visas, the agency has estimated roughly 200,000 such licenses exist nationwide, and it has already moved to withhold federal funds from California and New York over licenses it says were issued improperly.
The court: 'not so fast' on the data
The lawsuit — State of Illinois v. U.S. Department of Transportation, filed August 13 in the Eastern District of Virginia by 21 states — is about a different tool. DOT and DHS wanted the Commercial Driver's License Information System records held by AAMVA, the nonprofit that runs the database for the states: names, dates of birth, states of record, license numbers and Social Security numbers for roughly 17 million CDL holders, with a five-year lookback. DHS issued an administrative subpoena; DOT, the states allege, threatened their federal funding if AAMVA did not hand the data over.
What the August 20 order does
Under the TRO, AAMVA cannot transfer the plaintiff states' CDLIS records to DOT, FMCSA or any other federal agency while the case proceeds, and the government cannot act on any threatened consequence — including withholding funds. The court found the states likely to succeed on their claim that the demand was arbitrary. Next: the states' motion for a preliminary injunction is due August 27, the government's response September 3, and a hearing is set for September 10.
Washington's argument is that it cannot do the very oversight the STOP Act envisions without the data. 'Without access to CDL data, FMCSA is materially hindered in its statutory obligation to conduct oversight of states' CDL issuance,' the department wrote in its August 17 brief opposing the order. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy framed it as a safety question: 'I want to make sure that if I have drivers driving an 80,000-pound big rig on an American road endangering an American citizen, I want them off the American road.'
“ The judge's decision reaffirms long-standing privacy and governance protections around state-owned driver information. ”
The collision is hard to miss. One branch of government wants a statutory mandate to audit state licensing files and a funding cutoff to enforce it; another has just told the executive branch it cannot simply take those files. Whatever happens on September 10, the states named in the lawsuit — California, New York and Illinois among them — are the same states the bill's sponsor has singled out. The plaintiffs are: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, with Minnesota joining the companion case against DHS.
For carriers and drivers
Non-domiciled CDL holders: the February rule is in force; check the license's expiration and visa category now, not at renewal.
Fleets: a 25%-plus audit error rate in your home state under the STOP Act would mean annual federal audits — and a funding fight that lands on the state DMV you depend on.
Nothing in the TRO changes roadside enforcement, English-proficiency checks or the non-domiciled rule itself. It only stops the data transfer.
Mark September 10 on the calendar.
CDL rules are changing week by week
Follow the STOP Act, the CDLIS lawsuit and every FMCSA move on Qrylo.