A Wyoming lawmaker is calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to take action to ensure that English language proficiency (ELP) requirements for commercial vehicle drivers are enforced at a federal level.
On April 10, 2025, Rep. Harriet Hageman penned a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy asking for USDOT to step up enforcement of existing requirements for ELP for commercial vehicle drivers.
Long-standing federal rules require ELP for commercial drivers. FMCSR 391.11(b)(2) is an existing regulation that requires that commercial vehicle drivers be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, and to respond to official inquiries and to make entries on required reports and records.
“As you are well aware,” Hageman wrote to Duffy, “lacking the ability to read and communicate proficiently in English, particularly as it relates to reading and understanding roadway signage, presents a major safety issue for all drivers, which is precisely why these regulations were promulgated in the first place.”
While acknowledging that there are federal regulations on the books requiring ELP in order to be eligible to operate a commercial vehicle, Hageman pointed to “Obama Administration-issued guidance superseding existing regulations and dramatically loosening enforcement against CMV drivers without an ELP, thereby placing millions of American motorists in jeopardy.”
Hageman goes on to describe the ELP rule changes outlined in a June 2016 FMCSA memo:
“Specifically, the guidance terminated the requirement for FMCSA inspectors to place CMV drivers out of service for ELP violations when conducting safety investigations. Formal driver interviews to confirm ELP would also no longer be conducted during roadside inspections. Lastly, the guidance states that “if the driver cannot read, write, or speak English but can communicate sufficiently with the inspector/investigator, they should not be cited with an ELP violation.” Tools to facilitate communications, including interpreters, cue cards, smart phone applications, etc. may be used when interacting with drivers.“
The letter points to an uptick in fatal truck crashes since 2016, “with 5,837 fatal accidents in 2022,” after the guidance went into effect. “While looking at this data, it is well within reason to conclude that this guidance has played a factor in the number of trucking accidents throughout the last several years,” Hageman said.
Hageman concludes:
“With the number of accidents involving CMVs on the rise, it is critical that we take steps to uncover and reevaluate these sorts of concealed policies. To that end, it is worth pointing out that President Trump’s declaration establishing English as the official language of the U.S. demonstrates his clear commitment in this area.“
You can take a look at the letter in full here.
