WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration rolled out a sweeping set of transportation initiatives this week, pairing family-focused travel reforms and frontline worker bonuses with a blistering federal crackdown on New York’s commercial driver licensing system that officials say has endangered public safety.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy on Monday launched the Make Travel Family Friendly Again campaign as airports brace for the holiday travel rush. The initiative aims to ease long-standing pain points for families, from the lack of child-friendly spaces to limited access to healthy food and accommodations for nursing mothers.
As part of the campaign, the Department of Transportation announced $1 billion in competitive funding to incentivize airports to build and expand family-oriented amenities. Eligible projects include children’s play and exercise areas, nursing pods and mothers’ rooms, dedicated family screening lanes at security checkpoints, sensory rooms for children with special needs, and other terminal improvements designed to make travel less stressful for parents and caregivers.
Duffy unveiled the effort alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., physician nutrition specialist Dr. Paul Saladino, content creator and mother Isabel Brown, and Farmer’s Fridge founder and CEO Luke Saunders. The group also pressed airports and private partners to improve access to fresh, nutritious food options, highlighting the growing popularity of healthy grab-and-go vending concepts in terminals nationwide.
Bringing about what Duffy called a new golden age of travel must include a happier and healthier family experience, he said, describing the initiative as part of the administration’s broader Family First agenda. Kennedy added that travelers should not have to sacrifice access to whole foods simply because they are passing through an airport.
The funding will be awarded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s Airport Terminal Program. Airports are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, with a submission deadline of January 15, 2026.
Later in the week, the administration turned its attention to rail workers. On Thursday, President Donald Trump and Duffy announced an agreement with Amtrak’s management and board to deliver $900 bonuses to more than 18,000 unionized frontline rail employees this Christmas season, citing a record year for ridership and revenue.
At the urging of the Trump administration, Amtrak’s executive leadership agreed to forgo 50 percent of the bonuses they would have received under the previous compensation structure. The board also voted to eliminate long-term incentive bonuses for senior executives and redirect those funds to frontline workers.
Duffy said the move reflects a shift away from what the department described as Biden-Buttigieg era bonus structures that prioritized executive payouts. Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven G. Bradbury, who represents the department on Amtrak’s board, praised the decision as overdue recognition of the workforce that keeps passenger rail running.
Union leaders echoed that sentiment. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen President Mark Wallace said the reallocation of bonuses marked a meaningful improvement under the administration’s direction, while SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson called the payments an important acknowledgment of frontline employees’ dedication during the holiday season.
The week’s most forceful announcement came Friday, when Duffy revealed the results of a nationwide audit by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that uncovered what federal officials described as systemic and illegal issuance of commercial driver’s licenses by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles.
According to the audit, more than half of the sampled non-domiciled CDL records reviewed in New York were issued in violation of federal law. Out of 200 records examined, 107 were noncompliant, a failure rate exceeding 53 percent. Investigators found that New York’s systems routinely defaulted to issuing eight-year commercial licenses to foreign drivers without verifying whether their lawful presence in the United States extended beyond the license term.
Federal officials said the state also relied on expired immigration documents in multiple cases, allowing foreign drivers whose lawful status had lapsed to obtain or retain CDLs. In an admission cited by the department, New York DMV officials confirmed their system was programmed to disregard immigration expiration dates for non-REAL ID commercial licenses.
Duffy called the findings a dereliction of duty by state leadership and demanded that Governor Kathy Hochul immediately revoke every illegally issued license. He warned that failure to comply would result in the withholding of approximately $73 million in federal highway funding.
FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said the audit revealed a grossly unacceptable deviation from federal regulations that compromised the integrity of New York’s CDL program. The department has ordered the state to pause all issuance and renewal of non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learner’s permits, conduct a comprehensive internal audit, revoke all unexpired noncompliant licenses, and remove unqualified drivers from the road.
Under federal rules, New York has 30 days to respond to the enforcement action. Failure to take corrective steps could lead to the loss of federal funds and possible decertification of the state’s CDL program.
Taken together, the announcements reflect an aggressive posture by the Department of Transportation, blending consumer-facing reforms and labor recognition with hardline enforcement actions aimed at what officials describe as systemic safety failures at the state level.
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