Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Standards; Incorporation by Reference of a New State Procedures Manual (SPM)

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Part 384</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FMCSA-2023-0269]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2126-AC68</RIN> <SUBJECT>Commercial Driver's License (CDL) Standards; Incorporation by Reference of a New State Procedures Manual (SPM)</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> FMCSA amends the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) to incorporate by reference the most recent edition of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, Inc.'s (AAMVA's) Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) State Procedures Manual (SPM), version c.0. This rule will require all State driver's licensing agencies (SDLAs) to use this edition of the manual to follow standard administrative practices required by the States, and other jurisdictions using the SPM when participating in CDLIS. Version c.0 of the CDLIS SPM provides users with instructions on the processes and procedures for using the information system. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective July 15, 2024. The incorporation by reference of the material described in the rule is approved by the Director of the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> as of July 15, 2024. Petitions for Reconsideration of this final rule must be submitted to the FMCSA Administrator no later than July 15, 2024. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Ms. Rebecca Rehberg, CDL Division, FMCSA, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001; (850) 728-2034, <E T="03">cdlcompliance@dot.gov.</E> If you have questions on viewing or submitting material to the docket, call Dockets Operations at (202) 366-9826. FMCSA organizes this final rule as follows: <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Availability of Rulemaking Documents</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Abbreviations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Legal Basis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Discussion of Proposed Rulemaking and Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Comments and Responses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Changes From the NPRM</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Section-by-Section Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Regulatory Analyses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. E.O. 12866 (Regulatory Planning and Review), E.O. 13563 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review), E.O. 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review), and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Congressional Review Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Assistance for Small Entities</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. E.O. 13132 (Federalism)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Privacy</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. E.O. 13175 (Indian Tribal Governments)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. National Environmental Policy Act of 1969</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Availability of Rulemaking Documents</HD> To view any documents mentioned as being available in the docket, go to <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/docket/FMCSA-2023-0269/document</E> and choose the document to review. To view comments, click this final rule, then click “Browse Comments.” If you do not have access to the internet, you may view the docket online by visiting Dockets Operations at U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9 a.m. and 5p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 366-9317 or (202) 366-9826 before visiting Dockets Operations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Executive Summary </HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Purpose and Summary of the Regulatory Action</HD> In this final rule, FMCSA incorporates by reference version c.0 of the Commercial Driver's License Information System (CDLIS) State Procedures Manual (SPM), which the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, Inc. (AAMVA) released in September 2023. In 2014, FMCSA incorporated by reference version 5.3.2.1 of the CDLIS SPM, which AAMVA released in August 2013 (79 FR 59450 (Oct. 2, 2014)). Version c.0 of the CDLIS SPM has replaced the 2013 version. The CDLIS SPM (version c.0) provides user instructions on the information system processes and procedures of the CDL program. This change reflects a routine update of the referenced SPM (version c.0) to include changes introduced in connection with the exclusively electronic exchange of driver history record information (EEE, 86 FR 38937) procedures and the second drug and alcohol clearinghouse final rule (DACH II or Clearinghouse, 86 FR 55718) information. The material is available, and will continue to be available, for inspection at the Department of Transportation Library. Copies of the SPM (version c.0) may also be obtained through AAMVA. Further details, including contact addresses and telephone numbers, for both the Department of Transportation Library and AAMVA are provided in § 384.107 in the amendatory text of this final rule. AAMVA plans to update this SPM as needed to reflect changing legal requirements and best practices in the operations of CDLIS. Incorporating version c.0 by reference, however, should ensure that each State complies with the specific version required by FMCSA. Twenty-six updates distinguish the September 2023 edition of the SPM (version c.0) from the August 2013 edition. The updates are all described in detail in the February 20, 2023, notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rule (89 FR 12800). The incorporation by reference of the September 2023 edition does not impose new regulatory requirements and consequently will neither impose costs nor result in quantifiable benefits. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Abbreviations </HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">AAMVA American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">AAMVAnet American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators Network</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CDL Commercial Driver's License</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CDLIS Commercial Driver's License Information System</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CE Categorical Exclusion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CFR Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CLP Commercial Learner's Permit</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CMV Commercial Motor Vehicle</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CMVSA Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">DACH Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">DGAF General Directorship of Federal Motor Carrier Transportation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">DOT Department of Transportation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">EEE Exclusively Electronic Exchange</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">E.O. Executive Order</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FHWA Federal Highway Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FMCSA Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FMCSRs Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FR Federal Register</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">NARA National Archives and Records Administration</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">NPRM Notice of Proposed Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">PIA Privacy Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">PII Personally Identifiable Information</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">PTA Privacy Threshold Assessment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">RFA Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">RTD Return to Duty</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">SDLA State Driver's Licensing Agency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">SPEXS State Pointer Exchange Services</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">SPM State Procedures Manual</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2"> S2S State-to-State   The acronym S2S is solely used for the purposes of this document to refer to processes involving State-to-State interactions and should not be confused with the CDLIS application system. </FTNT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">The Secretary The Secretary of Transportation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">UMRA Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">U.S.C. United States Code</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">IV. Legal Basis</HD> Section 206 of the Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 (Pub. L. 98-554, title II, 98 Stat. 2832, 2834, codified at 49 U.S.C. 31136) directed the Secretary of Transportation (the Secretary) to regulate commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) and the drivers and motor carriers that operate them. The Secretary was also directed to issue regulations governing the physical condition of drivers. The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (CMVSA) (Pub. L. 99-570, title XII, 100 Stat. 3207-170, codified at 49 U.S.C. chapter 313) required the Secretary, after consultation with the States, to prescribe regulations on minimum uniform standards for State issuance of CDLs. CMVSA also specified information States must include on each CDL (49 U.S.C. 31308). Congress delegated the authorities set forth in the Motor Carrier Safety Act of 1984 and the CMVSA to FMCSA's Administrator (see 49 U.S.C. 113(f)(1); see also sec. 1.87(e)-(f)). FMCSA, in accordance with 49 U.S.C. 31308, has authority to prescribe procedures and requirements the States must adhere to in issuing CDLs and commercial learner's permits (CLPs). To avoid loss of Federal-aid highway funds, 49 U.S.C. 31314 requires each State to comply substantially with 49 U.S.C. 31311(a), which prescribes the requirements for State participation in the CDL program. To ensure that the States are able to exchange information about CDL holders efficiently and effectively through CDLIS, as required by 49 U.S.C. 31311(a)(5) through (9), (15), (18), (19), and (21), this final rule will require States to follow all the procedures described in version c.0 of the CDLIS SP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 37k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━