Thomas Massie Takes On the Biden Regime’s “Kill Switch” Mandate for Vehicles

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Nov 9, 2023

The devil is always in the details when it comes to legislation that is passed in the Washington, DC Swamp. 

Back in 2021, President Joe Biden signed the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” into law. This bill is over 1,000 pages long and has a labyrinth of provisions that should concern any self-respecting liberty-lover. 

One provision of this law ostensibly dealing with drunk driving has become the center of a major controversy in DC. At first glance, the bill sought to prevent alcohol-related driving fatalities by having “drunk and impaired driving prevention technology” mandated equipment installed in all new vehicles. 

To achieve this, all new automobiles sold after 2026 would be federally mandated to have an automatic “kill switch” installed that would shut the vehicle down if the system detected the driver driving in an erratic manner suggesting that they may be intoxicated.

Per a USA Today “Fact Check”, “Section 24220 of the bill directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop rules that would require new cars to be equipped with technology that ‘passively monitors the performance of a driver,’ identifies whether they may be impaired and prevents or limits motor vehicle operation ‘if an impairment is detected.’” 

In effect, the government has the power to force private companies to install this device in their vehicles. This is a clear infringement on the economic liberties of business owners. Moreover, the installation and implementation of these devices will be a costly endeavor that will ultimately be passed onto consumers via higher prices. 

At the start of November, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie took bold action by introducing an amendment that would defund the kill-switch mandate.  On November 6, Massie posted on X:

If it passes, my “kill switch” amendment will defund the looming mandate that all new vehicles sold after 2026 be equipped with technology that can automatically disable vehicles.

On November 7, Massie followed up with another post where he announced that his mandate would be voted on that night: 

The right to travel is fundamental, but the government has mandated a kill-switch in new vehicles sold after 2026. The kill-switch will monitor driver performance and disable cars based on the information gathered. We will vote on my amendment to defund this mandate tonight.

Sadly, the amendment failed on the night of November 7, which Massie highlighted in an X post: 

The federal government has mandated that all vehicles sold after 2026 must have a kill switch that can disable your vehicle based on your driving performance.

My amendment to defund that unconstitutional mandate failed tonight.

Here is the roll call:

https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2023/roll616.xml 

Sadly, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans scuttled Massie’s amendment. Hannah Cox of Based Politics highlighted some of the dangerous implications surrounding this mandate provision: 

Yes, it’s [Massie’s amendment] being put in place to purportedly stop drunk driving. But once it’s in place, that puts us one huge step closer to the ability to use it for other means—and it’s deeply naive to think the government won’t seize that ability at some point in ways that will erode basic civil liberties and harm innocent Americans.

Cox continued by stressing that DC’s approval of such a mandate indicates that there’s no respect for capitalism in the halls of Congress: 

So, the kill switch is really just the latest of a mounting pile of infringements on this liberty, and based on Massie’s vote count, the only free movement we’re currently seeing is in Congress: away from capitalism and the Constitution.

All told, we’re going to need at least a 100 Thomas Massies in Congress if we want any semblance of free market policies to be implemented at the federal level. The present uniparty in DC is simply too addicted to big government.

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