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Emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the American public, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) advocated for requiring truck drivers in the United States to prove their English proficiency during a segment on – News Saturday.
Moderator Matthew Boyle questioned Donalds about the legislation he proposed, which aims to mandate English proficiency for truck drivers in America and permits the Department of Transportation to conduct English proficiency tests for commercial truck drivers at weigh stations nationwide.
“Tell us about this legislation and its significance. Incidentally, we have a large trucker audience tuning in to this program across the nation. Many of them are engaged with SiriusXM on the Patriot channel here. So your listeners are the truckers, they’re the diligent folks on the roads,” Boyle remarked, referencing the recent incident in Florida where a truck operated by an illegal immigrant caused three fatalities during an unlawful U-turn.
“Following the tragic incident in Florida, Governor DeSantis and our Agriculture Commissioner, Wilton Simpson, initiated a plan to utilize weigh stations on state roads for English proficiency assessments and to verify the validity of CDLs [commercial driver’s licenses] for truckers operating in the state of Florida,” Donalds stated.
He said he spoke with Simpson, and “asked him about the details of what they were doing” and filed federal legislation.
“The proposal mandates that all weigh stations on the interstate highway system, the federal network … conduct proficiency assessments and CDL verifications to ensure that not only are licenses in order but also that drivers have the English proficiency needed to interpret road signs and maintain safety on the highways,” the congressman explained.
“For the truck drivers out there, the last thing anyone wants is for someone who can’t even interpret the signs,” he added, referring to reports indicating that the illegal immigrant responsible for the deadly Florida U-turn had failed an English language proficiency evaluation and was unable to correctly recognize highway traffic signs.
“I’ve driven a lot of highway miles in my life. You know, I can navigate a Honda Accord. What I can’t navigate is a tractor trailer. We want to make sure that everybody’s safe out on these roads. And this is a simple thing to do, and so it’s commonsense policy. And the way we wrote the bill was that the Department of Transportation would enforce this, and if there was a state that blocked the Department of Transportation from trying to enforce this, then we would withhold transportation highway funding,” he said, adding that the blue states that want to remain sanctuaries would not get federal tax money if they refused to comply.
“Hopefully we’ll see this get agenda-ed on Capitol Hill real soon, and we can get this bill moving through Congress,” Donalds added
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– News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.
