Congress is employing the same tactic it used to raise the drinking age to compel states to enact new teenage driving laws.
Three decades ago, Washington prodded the states to raise the legal drinking age to 21 by threatening to withhold federal transportation dollars if they didn’t.
The threat worked.
Now, Congress is looking at using similar threats to compel states to pass new driving laws covering everything from teen texting to minimum driving ages.
Provisions passed Wednesday in the Senate would urge states to implement, among other new rules, a three-stage licensing process — first a learner’s permit, then an intermediate one and finally a driver’s license.
The rules were passed as part of a two-year, $109 billion highway bill. They would also call for restrictions on teenage night driving during the intermediate period, bar most use of a cellphone in the first two stages and ensure regular licenses are not issued before age 18.
The rules would hit some states harder than others, as many already have strict teenage driving laws.
But according to the office of sponsor Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., a number of states fall short of the proposed standards. Three states do not have regulations for nighttime driving — and South Dakota gives unrestricted licenses to 16-year-olds. Other states would likely be compelled to raise the age at which they offer a learner’s permit.
The proposal does not require these changes. Rather, it uses a carrot-and-stick approach by offering grants to states that comply early on and withholding highway funding to states that hold out.
“This legislation will give young drivers better education and more experience before they get out on the roads, keeping us all safer and saving lives,” Gillibrand said in a written statement.
The proposal could run into objections from states’ rights advocates, as well as lawmakers in rural states where the teenage driving laws tend to be less stringent.
The bill still has to clear the House.
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5 Responses
Driver Education is the way to go!!!
You say “…Congress is employing the same tactic it used to raise the drinking age to compel states to enact new teenage driving laws…”
My word, this not a chiddush, nor is it nefarious…it is the standard way the Federal government has always enforced Federal legislation, and it has been this way since before WWII.
If a private University wants federal financial assistance, it has to agree to abide by enumerated civil rights protections; if a State wishes to receive juvenile delinquency prevention grants, it must adhere to minimum federal standards for the holding of juveniles in secure detention; if a developer is to receive a federal mortgage subsidy for a housing development, it must abide by federal fair housing requirements; if a State wishes to receive federal highway monies it has to abide by federal construction requirements, speed limits, driver licensing requirements and more.
This is a normal part and parcel of how any grantor doles out monies…the grantee has to agree to follow minimum grant requirements. So don’t try and make it sound like anything more than that.
Enough is an enough; This is state business not federal business. It is time for the federal government to get out of everybody lives from driving, to eating, to insurance and population growth. It every week sounds more and more like Red China
Dont you love these hypocritical Libs when it comes to gun rights which are real rights, if there’s a bill to force states to comply for the actual 2A rights which is the federal gov job, they scream states rights “you cant force states to have more lenient gun laws” separation of powers they yell. When it comes to the federal gov actually grabbing power from the states then all of a sudden we dont hear about states rights
P.s there is really no such thing as states rights its state powers. states dont have rights only people do
Way to go!! Look at some of today’s accidents…sadly, they often involve our “eigene” teens, whether boy or girl, behind the wheel, clearly under-qualified to be driving, especially at night.
I’m not in favor of the feds mixing in, but if this is what it takes to make the roads safer, so be it.
Some parents just don’t learn – and ya can’t teach ’em either…….