The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has approved, on a largely party-line vote, a bill limiting a state to issuing a CDL only to an individual who operates or will operate a commercial motor vehicle and is domiciled in the state or in a state that does not issue CDLs.

The bill allows states to issue CDLs to applicants domiciled in a foreign jurisdiction under certain criteria to be set out in DOT regulations:

• the individual has lawful immigration status in the United States;

• the individual possesses a visa determined by the Secretary of Transportation to be directly connected to a legitimate, employment-based reason to hold a commercial driver’s license;

• the state confirms the applicant’s lawful immigration status before issuing, transferring, renewing, or upgrading a license issued under this paragraph;

• the state issues a license under this paragraph for a time period of up to 1 year or until the expiration of the applicant’s authorized stay in the United States, whichever is shorter; and

• the state retains records related to the issuance of a license under this paragraph for not less than 2 years or for a period of time as otherwise prescribed by the Secretary and, within 48 hours of a request, provides such records to the Secretary.

Less restrictive standards would be allowed for issuing CDLs to applicants domiciled in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands. There, proof of United States citizenship or lawful permanent resident status would be sufficient to support issuing a CDL.