Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman. First of all, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your hard work on this legislation, but I do have a concern about funding for the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, or DADSS, program that supports research of advanced alcohol detection technology. MAP-21 authorized and Congress provided $5.44 million for this program in fiscal year 2014. For fiscal year 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requested $5.72 million. Unfortunately, the report attached to the T-HUD bill specifies only $2.72 million for this program. The DADSS program supports a cooperative agreement between the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety and the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration to work together to create a passive, in- vehicle technology that can determine the driver's--and only the driver's--blood alcohol content. If the driver is at or above 0.08, the illegal limit in all 50 States, the car would be inoperable. The current operating plan for the program runs through 2018, and the goal at this time would be to have ready a commercially viable technology by then. While great progress has been made, more research must take place. Full funding for this research should be a priority for this Congress because each year, over 10,000 Americans are killed due to drunk driving--nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities. Madam Chairman, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has called the DADSS program its highest legislative priority.…”