OMB Approves FMCSA IFR on Non-Domiciled CDL’s

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an interim final rule (IFR) for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on “Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL)”. The IFR was submitted to OIRA on Thursday.

This rulemaking is obviously high-profile for the Administration with the one-day turnaround at OIRA. The IFR is scheduled to be published in Monday’s Federal Register, and is available online today. Yesterday, Secretary Duffy announced the publication of the IFR and DOT has published a fact sheet on the rulemaking.

FMCSA Sends Non-Domiciled CDL IFR to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received an interim final rule (IFR) from the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) on “Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL)”.

This rulemaking was not listed in the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda. It does, however, appear that it would be the first regulatory step to implement the requirements of §4 of EO 14286, Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America's Truck Drivers. That would explain the use of an IFR instead of going through the normal notice and comment rulemaking process.

NOTE: It will be interesting to see if this rulemaking has any impact the current status of Mexican and Canadian drivers not needing a non-domiciled CDL to drive trucks in the United States

I do not expect that I will be covering this rulemaking in any detail, but since it does have potential implications for transportation of chemicals (due to the general shortage of qualified truck drivers for both hazmat and non-hazmat chemical loads) I will at least mention the publication of the rule in the appropriate ‘Short Takes’ post.