Political Quotes

“I agree with my colleague from New York. This bill has too many cuts, and I will oppose final passage. But it does have comparable funding levels between the House and Senate for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which administers distracted driving prevention grants to the States. This is an area where we need to do more. Every year thousands of accidents, many fatal, result from people texting or talking on their phones while driving. I'm not just talking about using a hands-free device. I'm talking about someone driving with one hand while talking on a cell phone or texting with the other hand. In 2011, 3,331 people in the U.S. were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver--up from 3,267 in 2010. And in 2011, more than 387,000 people were injured in an accident involving a distracted driver, and 416,000 were injured in 2010. In 2012, the last year of updated data, 10 percent of injury crashes resulted from distracted driving. It's clear that we must use every opportunity available to push for strong distracted driving laws, much the same as we did for drunk driving, which worked. So I encourage my colleagues to renew their commitment to address the deadly issue of distracted driving. My Districted Driving Prevention Act, H.R. 1664, withholds funding from States that do not make both texting and talking on a phone while driving a primary offense, and goes further than the U.S.…”