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One year ago this week, three Floridians senselessly lost their lives on Florida’s Turnpike near Fort Pierce due to the complete and utter recklessness of a If you are a foreign national driving a commercial truck in America, you should have to meet the same basic safety requirements as everyone else.” truck driver with an illegal CDL license.
Three people died for doing nothing more than simply driving down the highway when a tractor-trailer driver made an illegal U-turn through an access point, cutting across traffic and leaving an approaching minivan with nowhere to go.
Their families will carry that loss for the rest of their lives.
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We cannot bring those Americans back. But we can decide who drives on our highways and whether their senseless deaths are going to be another tragedy we forget—or a warning that finally forces us to fix a broken system.
I choose the latter.
America should not lower our standards to accommodate foreign nationals who cannot meet basic commercial-driving requirements. Full stop. Shortsighted state policies and lax federal oversight, like California issuing Non-Domiciled CDLs without rigorous verification of legal work status or language skills, are endangering each and every American citizen.
The Trump administration has made clear that Freedom Haulers is part of a broader effort to crack down on dangerous foreign drivers, restore integrity to the trucking industry, and give our veterans good-paying jobs here at home.
And this doesn’t have to be the case. We have the best trained drivers in the world. American veterans already possess the discipline, training, and experience needed on the road, and I can’t think of better training for our commercial trucking industry.
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That is what President Trump’s Freedom Haulers initiative is about, and that’s why I’m proud to introduce the bill to make it law.
Freedom Haulers recognizes something the rest of the country should have recognized long ago: military experience counts. Veterans have the discipline, precision, accountability and experience that trucking demands. Qualified veterans with military heavy-vehicle experience can use existing federal waivers to avoid redundant road testing and get into the industry faster.
Now Congress needs to make that policy permanent.
That is why I am introducing new Freedom Haulers legislation to codify the program.
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It is about getting Americans who served this country into the trucking industry while getting dangerous, unqualified foreign drivers off our roads. The Trump administration has made clear that Freedom Haulers is part of a broader effort to crack down on dangerous foreign drivers, restore integrity to the trucking industry, and give our veterans good-paying jobs here at home.
That’s why, with my bill and President Trump’s initiative, we will be creating a program that fast tracks American veterans into the trucking industry, allowing veterans with qualifying military driving experience to skip the CDL knowledge test, in addition to existing mechanisms that can let them bypass the road/skills test, and use veterans’ benefits to pay for CDL training.
Federal law already requires commercial drivers to speak English and read road signs, but lax enforcement has allowed drivers who scored as low as 2 out of 12 on proficiency tests onto our highways.
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Foreign nationals driving on our roads, who failed English proficiency tests, who can’t understand our road signs, and who don’t know the driving laws are a real problem in our country, and we don’t need to lose another American because of it.
It ends now.
If you are driving a commercial truck on American highways—regardless of where you were born—you must meet strict, non-negotiable safety requirements. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
We need to get unqualified and unauthorized foreign drivers off the road—and put American veterans behind the wheel.
If you are driving a commercial truck on American highways—regardless of where you were born—you must meet strict, non-negotiable safety requirements.
If you are a foreign national driving a commercial truck in America, you should have to meet the same basic safety requirements as everyone else.
If you cannot demonstrate English proficiency, you should not be behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound vehicle. If you cannot pass the required skills test, you should not have a commercial driver’s license. If you are improperly licensed, improperly authorized or otherwise fail the requirements of federal law, you should be taken off the road.
This isn’t complicated.
It isn’t anti-immigrant.
It isn’t unfair.
It’s common sense.
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American families should not have to share the highway with someone who cannot communicate with law enforcement or demonstrate that they can safely operate a commercial vehicle.
The tragedy in Fort Pierce, that happened just a few miles from my home, showed why that matters.
According to the facts, the driver, who entered our country illegally, had scored just 2 out of 12 on an English proficiency test but was still given a CDL license by California. He was also operating a commercial tractor-trailer despite failing to obtain a work authorization.
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That should never happen again.
We should not be bending the rules for people who fail them.
We should be enforcing the rules—and then giving Americans who have already proven themselves an opportunity to do the job.
That is where our veterans come in.
Truck and automobile traffic mix on Interstate 5, headed north through Fife, Wash., near the Port of Tacoma on August, 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
For years, we asked American service members to operate massive military vehicles carrying troops, fuel and equipment in some of the most dangerous environments on Earth. We trusted them with millions of dollars of equipment. We trusted them with the lives of their fellow Americans.
While programs exist to waive the driving test for some veterans, bureaucratic hurdles and inconsistent state rules still make them jump through unnecessary hoops, including redundant written exams. We should cut that red tape completely.
We should be removing barriers for American veterans—not lowering standards for foreign drivers.
We should be recruiting the Americans who have already demonstrated that they can do the job—not importing people who cannot meet the minimum requirements to do it safely.
And we should be making one thing absolutely clear: A commercial driver’s license is not a participation trophy.
It is permission to operate a machine weighing tens of thousands of pounds alongside American families.
That privilege comes with an enormous responsibility.
If you fail the English test, you’re off the road.
If you fail the skills test, you’re off the road.
If your license was improperly issued, you’re off the road.
If you are not legally authorized to hold the credential that allows you to operate a commercial vehicle, you’re off the road.
There should be no loopholes. No excuses. No second set of standards.
And when those drivers are removed, we should fill those seats with Americans who earned the right to be there.
Our veterans have already answered the call.
They’ve driven military trucks.
They’ve followed orders.
They’ve operated under pressure.
Now we should give them another mission: Keep America moving.
The anniversary of the Fort Pierce crash is a reminder of what happens when we continue to let dangerous people go on our roads.
We owe those three victims more than thoughts and prayers.
We owe their families action.
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That means enforcing the rules against foreign nationals who cannot meet our standards. It means making sure every commercial driver can communicate in English and demonstrate the skills necessary to safely operate a big rig. And it means opening the door for American veterans who have already demonstrated those abilities.
We don’t need to lower the bar.
We need to enforce it.
We don’t need to look overseas for qualified drivers while qualified Americans are standing at the door.
We need to put our veterans behind the wheel.
Get unqualified foreign drivers off America’s roads.
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Put American veterans behind the wheel.
And make our highways safe again.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM REP. BRIAN MAST
Brian Mast, a Republican, is chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee and congressman representing Florida’s 21st District.
