House Freedom Caucus conservatives cheered the passage of an amendment to an appropriations bill that would terminate the so-called the Biden-era auto “kill switch.”
“Taxpayer dollars should not fund a surveillance system that treats every law abiding American driver as a suspect. As we work to address very real problems, we cannot allow our Constitutional liberties to be shredded or create a world where every American driver becomes a node for data gathering,” Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) told Breitbart News in a written statement.
When Congress passed the so-called Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the Biden administration in 2021, it contained the HALT Drunk Driving Act.
The legislation requires the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) to write new rules that would require automakers to install anti-drunk driving technology within five years. The law orders the agency to require a “passive system” in cars that would monitor a driver’s performance, detect their blood alcohol level (BAC) equal to and exceeding .08, which is the legal limit, and prevent or limit vehicle operation whenever it detects driver impairment.
The law enflamed controversy that the government was planning to mandate a government “kill switch” on all vehicles.
Some auto systems already monitor driver’s eyes and others use accelerators to detect stable inputs to steering. As part of the legislative mandate, NHTSA could mandate such systems.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has claimed that the technology could save “more than 10,000 lives each year.”
On Wednesday, Cloud, along with Reps. Celeste Maloy (R-UT) and Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-WA), offered an amendment to end funding the implementation of the so-called “kill switch.” The committee adopted the amendment 33 to 26.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD), also a member of the Appropriations Committee, told Breitbart News in a written statement, “The federal government controlling your car in the name of safety is straight-up dystopian. Americans want freedom — not Big Brother riding shotgun.”
He added, “Congress must kill the kill switch until we can be assured our rights are safeguarded — and so we should scrap Biden’s radical mandate now. Rep. Cloud’s amendment is the right move towards tapping the brakes on this not ready for prime time policy.”
MADD CEO Stacey D. Stewart said in a statement about the amendment:
Let’s be clear. This was a vote to defund the law. It was a victory for years of inaccurate claims about a law designed to prevent drunk driving and save lives. The vote turns a bipartisan requirement for an auto safety regulation into the possibility of a study, sending a troubling message to victims and survivors who were promised meaningful action to address a crime that continues to kill 32 Americans every day.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said in a statement to Breitbart News, “The government should never have the authority to take control of Americans’ cars. Kill Switch technology is a dystopian nightmare that we must forcefully reject and defeat at every turn. I’m incredibly pleased that an amendment to kill the Kill Switch was adopted with my support, and I look forward to continuing to fight with my conservative colleagues to ensure this Biden-era, Big Brother mandate never takes effect.”