FMCSA eliminates DEI rules for $89M in CDL grants
WASHINGTON — State and local government agencies, schools, small businesses, and others eligible for FMCSA's CDL grants will see fewer restrictions tied to the application process than was the case under the previous administration.
FMCSA announced on Friday up to $89.4 million available in the latest round of competitive grant funding through its Commercial Driver's License Program Implementation (CDLPI) grant. The grants are aimed at developing, implementing and maintaining CDL programs.
As is the case with all competitive grant programs now being run by the Trump administration, including infrastructure grants, the latest round of CDLPI grants eliminates the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and climate change requirements mandated under the Biden administration – what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy refers to as 'woke' and 'Green New Scam' mandates.
'Previously, recipients of this critical safety grant were forced to prioritize climate change and DEI agendas alongside core safety objectives,' FMCSA stated.But by eliminating DEI, the agency asserts, 'taxpayer dollars are now fully dedicated to genuine safety improvements, appropriate accountability, and real, measurable outcomes. Potential applicants are instructed to thoroughly review the reformed application guidelines to align with these necessary and refocused priorities.'
CDLPI grants help states strengthen compliance with federal safety regulations and enhance the integrity of the National Commercial Driver's License Program, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The program 'focuses on the concept that each driver has only one driving record and only one licensing document, commonly referred to as 'One Driver — One License — One Record.''
The National CDL Program also requires states to conduct knowledge and skills testing before issuing a commercial learner's permit and/or a CDL, to maintain a complete and accurate driver history record for anyone who obtains either document, and to impose driver disqualifications as required by regulations.To be considered for a CDLPI grant, applicants should specify performance goals related to the project. Performance goals for successful CDLPI grant award projects may include, among others:
Sustained compliance with rulemakings: Activities that support a state's implementation of federal CDL regulatory requirements, such as medical certification, Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse, and entry-level driver training requirements.
Timely driver history record (DHR) actions: Activities to issue disqualifications, suspensions and downgrades in a timely manner to CLP and CDL holders and post to their DHR, which will allow unsafe drivers to be removed from service.
Data quality, accuracy and completeness: Activities that address a state's accuracy and completeness of DHRs, including all conviction and disqualification data, medical certifications, entry-level driver training verification, and knowledge and skills testing information.
Innovative approaches to improving CDL issues: Activities that provide a novel technique or approach (program design, use of technology assets, etc.) to benefit national CDL safety and/or improve state driver license agencies' (SDLA) CDL safety data quality, which may include research projects and pilot testing new approaches to improving compliance.
Human trafficking recognition, prevention and reporting: Activities that deter and reduce commercial truck-based human trafficking-related activities, and increase human trafficking awareness and training for SDLA, judiciary, and law enforcement staff and other industry stakeholders.
Increased testing rates and integrity: Activities that increase a state's capacity for testing and issuing CDLs, including using new technology to ensure that CDL knowledge and skills testing integrity is maintained.
Cost savings: Activities that reduce costs for SDLAs through the increased use of automated systems.
Reduction in fraudulent CDL activities: Activities that increase the effectiveness of fraud prevention related to driving, medical credentials, skills testing operations and license issuance.
Complete proposals must be submitted electronically by July 7.
FreightWaves spotlight: CDL issues
FMCSA makes up to $90M available in FY2025 grants
Trump administration wants to cut FMCSA workforce by 7%
Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.
The post FMCSA eliminates DEI rules for $89M in CDL grants appeared first on FreightWaves.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
Wildfire smoke, shark pardons and lost 401(k) accounts: Your week in review
Wildfire smoke, shark pardons and lost 401(k) accounts: Your week in review Show Caption Hide Caption Smoke drifting into US from Canada wildfires could impact health Smoke from wildfires in Canada has drifted into Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Midwestern and East Coast states, and as far south as Florida. Canadian wildfire smoke hangs over U.S. Skies were looking milky across much of the United States for days as smoke from wildfires raging in Canada drifted into northern and Midwestern states and dipped even as far south as Florida. The Dakotas, Iowa and most of Minnesota and Wisconsin were under air quality alerts, and the haze hung over major cities including New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston. More than 200 wildfires were burning in Canada as of June 3, and more than half were classified as "out of control," Canadian forest fire authorities said. More news about our planet: Sign up for USA TODAY's Climate Point newsletter. Trump pardons Florida divers who freed sharks Presidential pardons have often sparked controversy, but Donald Trump's latest gesture had some teeth to it. Trump granted full clemency to two Florida divers, John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell, who were convicted of theft for cutting 19 sharks free from a fisherman's longline in 2020. They had assumed the gear was illegal; it turns out it belonged to a vessel permitted by the federal government to harvest sandbar sharks for research. "Whether people believe in his politics or not, he chose to pardon me ... and only ever wanted to help," Mansell said in a text. "I can't help but feel extremely grateful." A fortune sits in 'lost' 401(k) accounts You might think it would be hard to forget almost $60,000. But at least $1.7 trillion is wasting away in forgotten 401(k) accounts, the financial firm Capitalize found, and the average lost balance is $56,616. How does that happen? People who leave a job "usually have a bunch of things going on,' said David John of the AARP Public Policy Institute, and simply lose track. (More than 47 million Americans quit their jobs in the Great Resignation of 2021.) And someone who leaves a job after only a year or two might be especially prone to overlook a modest balance − which, thanks to the magic of tax-free investment growth, eventually turns into a big balance. Loretta Swit, 'M*A*S*H's beloved 'Hot Lips,' dies Fans, friends and co-stars were remembering Loretta Swit, who starred as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan through all 11 seasons of TV's hugely popular Korean War dramedy "M*A*S*H" and gave depth and strength to a character who began as an oversexed blond stereotype. Swit, 87, died May 30. "More than acting her part, she created it," star Alan Alda, 89, posted on X. Jamie Farr, 90, who played Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger, told USA TODAY she was his "adopted sister … as close as family can get." The cast was a tight-knit group through the years, Swit once said: "We might as well be joined at the hip." Close isn't good enough for the New York Knicks Some teams just want to win NOW. Maybe that's why the New York Knicks fired coach Tom Thibodeau, stunning much of the basketball world, just days after the franchise flirted with the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years before falling to the Indiana Pacers. Not bad for a team that had won just 21 games in the 2019-20 season before Thibodeau took over. The Knicks might be forgiven for being a little impatient after their magical run, however: They have not won a title since 1973. (The NBA Finals, with the Pacers facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, tipped off June 5). − Compiled by Robert Abitbol, USA TODAY copy chief
USA Today
30 minutes ago
- USA Today
I'm a Florida teacher. My passion to teach could be in violation of the law.
I'm a Florida teacher. My passion to teach could be in violation of the law. | Opinion This is the real damage: When fear begins to replace curiosity, and when silence replaces speech. Show Caption Hide Caption What we know now about President Trump's reshaping of education Education, especially higher education, has been a major focus of President Trump's term. Here is what we know now about his changes to education. As I prepare to teach a new literature course at Palm Beach State College (PBSC) this term, I find myself hesitating over something that, until recently, would have been routine: Selecting the works I assign to my students. The anthology adopted by our department includes powerful selections from African American, Latino, Asian American and LGBTQ+ writers – voices that capture the richness, contradiction and struggle of the American experience. These are voices I have taught for decades. But now I ask myself: Am I allowed to? Florida's 2023 legislation – most notably, Senate Bill 266 – prohibits instruction that espouses theories suggesting systemic racism, sexism or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and that they were created to maintain social or economic inequities. The language is broad, and the intent seems clear: Restrict the way educators discuss identity, history and power. But what is less clear is what this means in practice for teachers like me, particularly in college classrooms. I am a lifelong educator. I spent 36 years in the New York City Department of Education as a teacher, department chair and supervisor. For the last 12 years, I have taught English literature at PBSC. Does my passion to teach violate the law? My passion has always been to encourage students to read deeply, think critically and reflect honestly – especially about the kind of country we live in and the lives we each bring to the table. That requires a broad and inclusive literary canon. It requires teaching James Baldwin and Langston Hughes not only for their artistry, but also for the searing truths they offer about race and belonging in America. It means examining the cultural double-consciousness in Sandra Cisneros, the generational trauma in Ocean Vuong, the gender defiance in Audre Lorde. Literature becomes real when it speaks both to and through the student reading it. That is the essence of education. Opinion: We desegregated schools 71 years ago. We still have more work to do. But now, when I consider assigning those same texts, I worry: Will presenting such works – even neutrally, even for discussion – be seen as violating this law? If I ask students to consider the historical roots of injustice in a work by August Wilson or Toni Cade Bambara, could that be construed as "promoting a theory" rather than simply exposing students to a reality reflected in literature? Worse, the chilling effect has begun to erode the classroom itself. Faculty colleagues increasingly wonder whether they should self-censor – not out of agreement with the law, but out of a desire to avoid trouble. This is the real damage: When fear begins to replace curiosity, and when silence replaces speech. I do not seek to indoctrinate my students. I never have. I seek to challenge them, to open doors through literature that lead into the complicated, layered and sometimes uncomfortable questions that make up life in a pluralistic democracy. That is not political. That is educational. Opinion: As a college professor, I see how AI is stripping away the humanity in education Forbidding certain materials only limits our understanding Let us be clear: Removing or discouraging the inclusion of marginalized voices in the classroom does not eliminate discomfort. It only eliminates understanding. If our students cannot engage with difficult truths in college classrooms, where are they to encounter them? If we cannot safely present a range of American experiences through our literary heritage, what remains of our intellectual freedom? I do not write this out of defiance, but out of love – for teaching, for literature and for the role education plays in shaping thoughtful citizens. The danger of this legislation is not only in its enforcement but also in its ambiguity. It turns teachers into second-guessers. It turns students into cautious bystanders. And it risks turning Florida's classrooms into places where only the most neutral, safest voices are heard. But the world is not neutral. Literature is not safe. And education, at its best, is a form of illumination, not erasure. Carmine Giordano is an adjunct lecturer in English at Palm Beach State College. This column originally appeared in the Palm Beach Post.
Newsweek
44 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump Reacts to 'Epstein Files' Claim by Elon Musk
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Donald Trump has reacted after Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the president's name appears in the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender. Musk wrote in a post Thursday on X, formerly Twitter: "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" He added: "Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out." Why It Matters There has been a high-profile fallout between Trump and Musk, who have engaged in a bitter public dispute. The feud began when Musk expressed criticism of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, labeling it "outrageous" and "pork-filled." Trump later said he was "disappointed" in Musk's negativity toward the budget reconciliation bill, which now sits with the Senate. Since then, the feud has escalated, with Musk claiming Trump is named in the Epstein files. Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, has called the CEO's claim "an unfortunate episode." From left: Donald Trump attends a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., June 5, 2025; and Elon Musk looks on in the Oval Office there, May 30, 2025. From left: Donald Trump attends a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., June 5, 2025; and Elon Musk looks on in the Oval Office there, May 30, 2025. AP What To Know On Friday, Trump shared a post on Truth Social written by Epstein's former lawyer David Schoen on X, which claimed that his client "had no information to hurt President Trump." "I was hired to lead Jeffrey Epstein's defense as his criminal lawyer 9 days before he died. He sought my advice for months before that. I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he had no information to hurt President Trump. I specifically asked him!" Schoen wrote. He briefly represented Epstein shortly before the financier's death in 2019. Thousands of pages of records that named people with ties to Epstein, who died while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, have been released over the years. But there is no evidence to suggest Trump is mentioned in any unreleased files related to Epstein. And while the president is mentioned in some of the previously released court documents on Epstein, he has not been accused of wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Musk's claim taps into suspicions among conspiracy theorists and online sleuths that incriminating and sensitive files that the government possesses about Epstein's case have yet to be released. Trump has promised to release more government files related to Epstein, a move that gained attention after Attorney General Pam Bondi teased new disclosures earlier this year—though most released materials were already public. Trump and Epstein were previously acquaintances, with the Republican once calling the financier a "terrific guy." However, Trump later said the pair had a falling out about 15 years before Epstein's 2019 arrest. The president's name appears in flight logs for the disgraced man's private jet, mostly documenting trips in the 1990s between Palm Beach and New York. Epstein's former pilot testified that Trump and other public figures flew on the plane, but said he never witnessed any sexual misconduct on board. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking. One Epstein accuser, Johanna Sjoberg, mentioned being with Epstein at Trump's Atlantic City casino in 2016 testimony, but did not say she met Trump or allege misconduct. A Trump spokesperson told Newsweek in January 2024 that claims about Trump's connection to Epstein had been "thoroughly debunked" by the release of related documents. What People Are Saying White House press secretary Karolina Leavitt told Newsweek on Thursday: "This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again." President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday: "Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" The Democrats account on X wrote in a post alongside a picture of Trump with Epstein: "What is Trump hiding? Release the Epstein files." What Happens Next The Trump administration is expected to face growing pressure over the delayed release of additional files related to Epstein. After releasing an initial batch of documents in February, the administration pledged that more would follow. Bondi addressed concerns about the delay, saying the FBI is still reviewing a substantial volume of evidence. Democratic Representatives Stephen Lynch and Robert Garcia have demanded answers. In a letter first reported by Axios, they urged Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to "immediately clarify" whether recent claims made by Elon Musk about the case are accurate. Lynch and Garcia are also seeking a detailed timeline for the Justice Department's declassification and public release of all remaining Epstein documents. The lawmakers asked for an explanation of why no new records have been released since February, what role Trump is playing in the review process, and a list of personnel involved. They also requested clarification on why previously released documents contained "significant redactions."
