S AMDT 1536

S 1536 IS

To amend title 23, United States Code, to reduce the amount of Federal highway funding available to States that do not enact a law prohibiting an individual from writing, sending, or reading text messages while operating a motor vehicle.

July 29, 2009

Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mrs. HAGAN, and Ms. LANDRIEU) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

To amend title 23, United States Code, to reduce the amount of Federal highway funding available to States that do not enact a law prohibiting an individual from writing, sending, or reading text messages while operating a motor vehicle.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Avoiding Life-Endangering and Reckless Texting by Drivers Act of 2009’ or the ‘ALERT Drivers Act’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that--

(1) cell phones and other electronic devices are not only instrumentalities and channels of interstate commerce, but products of interstate commerce;

(2) for those reasons, regulation of the use of cellular telephones or other electronic devices to send text messages is covered by the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce as enumerated in article I, section 8 of the Constitution;

(3) additionally, the Supreme Court held in South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (June 23, 1987), that Congress may condition Federal highway funding on State compliance with certain conditions;

(4) people in the United States are using cellular telephones and other personal electronic devices to send text messages or emails, more commonly known as ‘texting’, with increasing frequency;

(5) according to the New York Times, more than 110,000,000,000 text messages were sent in the United States during the month of December 2008 alone, a tenfold increase in just 3 years;

(6) texting and portable email are valuable to consumers, businesses, and private individuals throughout the United States, but those services also create an extreme risk when used by individuals while operating motor vehicles;

(7) a 2008 study by Nationwide Insurance found that 20 percent of drivers in the United States send text messages while operating motor vehicles;

(8) according to a study by Car and Driver Magazine, texting while driving is more dangerous than driving while intoxicated;

(9) a recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found operators of motor vehicles who sent text messages while driving had a collision risk that was 23 times greater while texting as compared to the risk when the operators were not texting;

(10) another study by the University of Utah found that college students using a driving simulator were 8 times more likely to have an accident while texting;

(11) after a serious accident occurred on the Boston public trolley system in May 2009, the trolley operator was found to have been texting at the time of the accident;

(12) the problem of texting while driving has been recognized across the United States;

(13) as of the date of enactment of this Act, 14 States and the District of Columbia ban all drivers from texting while operating motor vehicles, and 11 other States have a modified ban on texting while driving;

(14) the risks created by texting while driving are increasing nationwide as the use of texting increases nationwide;

(15) it is necessary for Congress to act to protect the safety of all people in the United States on highways and roads in the United States; and

(16) a Federal law to address the problem of texting while driving is necessary to ensure minimum standards of protection across the United States, in the same manner as the national minimum drinking age provides a uniform standard of protection.

SEC. 3. OPERATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES WHILE TEXTING.

(a) In General- Chapter 1 of title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

‘Sec. 167. Operation of motor vehicles while texting

‘(a) Definitions- In this section:

‘(1) HAND-HELD MOBILE TELEPHONE-

‘(A) IN GENERAL- The term ‘hand-held mobile telephone’ means a mobile telephone or other portable electronic communication device with which a user engages in a call or writes, sends, or reads a text message using at least 1 hand.

‘(B) EXCLUSION- The term ‘hand-held mobile telephone’ does not include a voice-activated device.

‘(2) MOTOR VEHICLE- The term ‘motor vehicle’ means--

‘(A) a vehicle driven or drawn by mechanical power and manufactured primarily for use on public highways; and

‘(B) a railcar or other component of a fixed guideway system that is not subject to regulation by the Federal Railroad Administration.

‘(3) TEXT MESSAGE- The term ‘text message’ includes a text-based message, instant message, electronic message, and email.

‘(4) WRITING; SENDING; READING- The terms ‘writing’, ‘sending’, and ‘reading’, with respect to a text message, mean the manual entry, sending, or retrieval of a text message, respectively, to communicate with any person or device.

‘(b) Withholding of Apportionments for Noncompliance-

‘(1) IN GENERAL- On October 1 of the second fiscal year beginning after the date of promulgation of the regulations under subsection (d), and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall withhold 25 percent of the amount required to be apportioned to any State under each of paragraphs (1), (3), and (4) of section 104(b) for the fiscal year if the Secretary determines that the State does not meet the requirement under paragraph (2) as of that date.

‘(2) REQUIREMENT- A State shall meet the requirement under this paragraph if the State has enacted and is enforcing a law that--

‘(A) except in the event of an emergency, prohibits an operator of a moving motor vehicle from writing, sending, or reading a text message using a hand-held mobile telephone; and

‘(B) requires, upon conviction of a violation of that prohibition, the imposition of penalties in accordance with the requirements for minimum penalties described in the regulations promulgated under subsection (d).

‘(c) Recovery of Funds Withheld- All funds withheld under this section from apportionment to a State for 1 or more fiscal years shall be available for apportionment to the State immediately upon a determination by the Secretary that the State meets the requirement under paragraph (2).

‘(d) Regulations- Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations to carry out this section, including requirements for minimum penalties for violations of the prohibition under subsection (b)(2)(A) that--

‘(1) specify a minimum penalty for a first offense; and

‘(2) stipulate that penalties shall be graduated for repeated offenses.’.

(b) Conforming Amendment- The analysis for title 23, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end of the items relating to chapter 1 the following:

‘167. Operation of motor vehicles while texting.’.