Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says California, Washington and New Mexico could lose millions of dollars of federal funding if they continue failing to enforce English language requirements for truckers.

An investigation launched after a deadly Florida crash involving a foreign truck driver who made an illegal U-turn earlier this month found what Duffy called significant failures in the way all three states are enforcing rules that took effect in June after one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders.

Truckers are supposed to be disqualified if they can’t demonstrate English proficiency and Duffy said these states have hardly done that.

Duffy said Tuesday that it is a safety issue, not a political one, because truckers need to understand road signs and be able to communicate with law enforcement about what they are hauling if they are pulled over or what happened if there is an accident.

“This is about keeping people safe on the road. Your families, your kids, your spouses, your loved ones, your friends. We all use the roadway, and we need to make sure that those who are driving big rigs — semis — can understand the road signs, that they’ve been well trained,” Duffy said.

The Transportation Department said California has conducted roughly 34,000 inspections that found at least one violation since the new language standards took effect requiring truck drivers be able to recognize and read road signs and communicate with authorities in English. But only one inspection involved an English language rules violation that resulted in a driver being taken out of service. And 23 drivers with violations in other states were allowed to continue driving after inspections in California.

He cited similar statistics for the other states with Washington finding more than 6,000 violations of safety rules during inspections, but only pulling four drivers out of service for English language violations. New Mexico has not placed any drivers out of service since the rules took effect.

Duffy said the states will lose money from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program if they don't comply with the rules within 30 days. Duffy said California could lose $33 million, Washington could lose $10.5 million and New Mexico could lose $7 million.

The states did not immediately respond to the proposed sanctions that were announced before officials start their day on the West Coast.