If you ever wondered how close Washington is to literally pulling the plug on your daily life, Thursday’s vote in the House gave you your answer. A disturbing number of Republicans joined Democrats to keep alive a federal mandate that allows the government to shut off your vehicle whenever a bureaucrat decides it knows better than you.
Rep. Thomas Massie tried to stop it. Massie offered an amendment to defund provisions buried inside the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 that bankroll implementation of Section 24220 of the 2021 infrastructure law. That law passed thanks to the usual suspects, including so called Republicans like Mitt Romney and Mitch McConnell, and it contains what critics accurately describe as a rolling kill switch.
As reported by International Business Times, the rule requires that by 2026 all new vehicles come equipped with “advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology.” Sounds nice in a press release. In reality, it means your car is constantly monitoring you. Cameras watch your face. Sensors analyze your steering. Air detectors sniff for alcohol. If the system decides you might be impaired, the response is immediate. The car can shut down. No cop. No warrant. No appeal.
Some automakers are already testing this technology while waiting for guidance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The government claims it is about safety. History suggests it will not stop there.
Rep. Harriet Hageman backed Massie’s amendment and called the mandate what it is, a massive and likely unconstitutional invasion of privacy. She is right. A government that can disable your vehicle can strand you, track you, or punish you without due process.
Despite that, the House voted 268 to 164 to keep funding the program. Fifty seven Republicans voted against Massie’s amendment, siding with nearly every Democrat. Rep. Keith Self summed it up perfectly, calling the vote “unbelievably disturbing.” He was not exaggerating.
Here are the 57 Republicans who voted to keep the kill switch mandate Biden placed on cars. pic.twitter.com/GpOwlNcLtw
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) January 23, 2026
This is not some fringe theory. It is written into law. It is being built into cars. And members of Congress from both parties are waving it through like it is no big deal.
Massie asked the question everyone should be asking. When your car shuts down because it does not approve of your driving, how exactly do you appeal your roadside conviction? Who do you call, the Department of Motorized Obedience?
This vote should terrify anyone who values freedom of movement and basic due process. Today it is framed as stopping drunk driving. Tomorrow it will be about emissions, social credit, or whatever the ruling class decides next. The scariest part is not that Democrats support it. It is that so many Republicans did too.
Doesn’t the 4th amendment cover unlawful searches/ seizures.i like to think we the people deserve to be able to drive a taxed vehicle on a taxed road with taxed fuel in it without Uncle Sam watching our every move or invading our privacy!!!!! WAY to much government
So you’re driving on the freeway and suddenly your car shuts down. Then what? It stops in the middle of the road and creates an enormous traffic jam of drivers who can’t get by, and lookie-loos who grind traffic to a halt, or even a chain reaction of rear-end collisions? Then the Highway Patrol has to be called, and it takes hours to get a tow truck to clear your car off the road. Sounds great.