Next year your vehicle may not start if it doesn’t want to based on New Law.
— it decides if you get to drive or not. No appeal. No override. That’s not science fiction. That’s federal law, and it’s headed for every new vehicle sold in America.
In January 2026, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) tried to stop it. He introduced an amendment to the Consolidated Appropriations Act that would have defunded the federal government’s impaired driving technology mandate — the so-called vehicle “kill switch” buried in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The amendment was straightforward: prohibit any federal spending on implementing Section 24220 of the infrastructure law, which requires all new passenger vehicles to include technology that passively monitors drivers and can “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation” if impairment is detected.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R-PA), who represents Wayne, Pike, Lackawanna, and parts of Luzerne and Monroe Counties in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, voted in favor of the Massie amendment — siding with 160 other Republicans and four Democrats who sought to block the mandate.
It wasn’t enough. The amendment failed 164-268, with 57 Republicans crossing over to join 211 Democrats in killing it.
Four of Those 57 Republicans Came From Pennsylvania
The following PA Republicans voted against the Massie amendment, effectively supporting the continuation of the kill switch mandate:
- Brian Fitzpatrick — 1st District (Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County)
- Dan Meuser — 9th District (North Central PA including Carbon, Columbia, Lebanon, Schuylkill, and parts of Luzerne County, covering Williamsport and Bloomsburg)
- Glenn Thompson — 15th District (Rural north-central PA including Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Cameron, Jefferson, McKean, Potter, Tioga, and Warren Counties)
- Mike Kelly — 16th District (Northwestern PA including Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Lawrence, Butler, and part of Venango County)
None of the 57 Republicans who voted against the amendment publicly commented on their decision.
What the Mandate Actually Requires
The 2021 law directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require new vehicles to be equipped with systems that can passively detect whether a driver is impaired — through cameras monitoring eye movement, head position, steering behavior, and lane drift — and then prevent or limit vehicle operation.
NHTSA missed its original November 2024 deadline to finalize the standard. In a February 2026 report to Congress, the agency admitted that no existing technology comes close to the accuracy needed for deployment. Even at 99.9 percent accuracy, the agency acknowledged the system would produce millions of false positives per year — preventing sober drivers from operating their own vehicles.
Industry analysts and critics of the mandate have estimated the technology could add $100 to $500 to the cost of each new vehicle, though no official federal cost estimate has been finalized. There is currently no federal requirement that automakers disclose how collected driver data is stored, shared, or deleted.
What Comes Next
The rollout is now targeted for late 2026 to 2027, though further delays are likely given the technology readiness issues. A separate bill, the No Kill Switches in Cars Act (H.R. 1137), introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) along with Massie and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), would repeal the mandate entirely. It remains in committee.
For residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Bresnahan’s vote in favor of the Massie amendment aligned with the privacy and civil liberties concerns raised by the amendment’s supporters. The four PA Republicans who voted the other way will have to answer to their constituents about why they chose to keep the mandate alive.