Tough Drunken Driving Provisions Dropped From Highway Bill [View All]

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Lawmakers negotiating a new long-term highway bill have dropped a Senate-passed provision that would have penalized states that don't enact tough laws against high-risk drunken drivers. The decision to reject the Senate language came as House and Senate negotiators neared a compromise on a $286.5 billion bill to fund highway, transit and safety programs in the 2004-09 period.

Aides said the bill, which would replace an act that expired almost two years ago, could be completed on Wednesday, and the House could take it up as early as Wednesday. "I'm profoundly disappointed," said Wendy J. Hamilton, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. High-risk drunken drivers "are the ones who really need to be taken off the road with tough sanctions," she said, because "they are far more likely to kill."

The Senate provision, sponsored by Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, would have defined three categories of high-risk drunken drivers: repeat offenders convicted of a second drunken driving offense within seven years; those with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .15 percent or higher; and those convicted of driving on a suspended license as a result of a DUI/DWI.

It would have included a 45-day hard suspension of driving privileges, with either 10 days of incarceration or 100 days of electronic monitoring. A 45-day vehicle impoundment would be followed by installation of an alcohol ignition interlock device for the remainder of a one-year period. States that don't enact similar legislation would be required to shift a portion of their federal highway construction money into safety programs.

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