Vote Alert: COGC Urges House to Eliminate Distracted Driving Grants

The Cost of Government Center sent an alert to the Hill today urging Members of the House of Representatives to Vote YES on the Motion to Instruct offered by Representative Black which would eliminate federal manipulation of state law through distracted driving grants:

The Motion to Instruct offered by Representative Black would eliminate federal manipulation of state law through distracted driving grants.  While we believe driving habits should be a responsibility reserved to the individual, it is at the very least an authority that rests with the states and not a matter of federal oversight. We urge Members of the House of Representatives to express their dedication to federalism and refrain from allowing the federal government to dictate state driving laws.

 

The founders understood that government closest to the people governs best and the Tenth Amendment reserves important powers and duties to state governments.  Ensuring the safety of motorists by establishing the “rules of the road” has long been a function of state legislatures.  Federal distracted driving policies infringe upon the powers reserved to the states without evidence that their initiatives serve to increase safety.  

 

In 2009, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood launched a national campaign to end distracted driving on America’s roads.  The primary focus of these efforts has been the development of state laws restricting the use of the cell phones while driving.  Yet despite texting bans in 39 states, after three years and millions in taxpayer funded research, the roads are still not safe; a recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that texting behind the wheel increased 50 percent in 2010. 

 

Research conducted in states which have imposed texting bans has found that crash rates often increase as a result and that cell phone usage does not decline.  A one-size-fits-all policy from Washington bureaucrats eliminates the ability of state legislatures to act as “laboratories of democracy,” experimenting with unique policy alternatives to meet this complicated challenge.    

 

Taxpayers deserve better

 

Vote YES on the Motion to Instruct offered by Representative Black