Appeals Court Blocks Trump’s $73 Million Highway Funding Cut to New York
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully withheld $73.5 million in highway funding from New York after the state refused to revoke nearly 33,000 commercial driver's licenses issued to noncitizens.
Official response and confirmed impact
The decision overturns an April funding penalty that threatened road repairs, bridge maintenance and highway safety projects across the state.
The dispute began after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) audited New York's commercial driver's license program and found that 107 of 200 records reviewed violated federal requirements.
Regulators identified licenses that remained valid beyond drivers' immigration authorization documents and questioned the state's procedures for verifying eligibility.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy demanded that New York revoke the disputed licenses, arguing that allowing improperly credentialed drivers to operate commercial vehicles posed a public safety risk.
New York refused, maintaining that the licenses complied with federal regulations and that the administration was applying a new interpretation of longstanding requirements.
Incident under investigation
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on November 13, 2026, that the Department of Transportation exceeded its authority by penalizing New York over licensing requirements that federal regulators had not clearly established.
