Washington (H24N). After three years of party wrangling, a bipartisan congressional committee approved a transportation bill that would impose a new, stricter national standard for drunk driving.

The bill, HR 4475, if passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, will effectively create a national standard lowering the maximum legal blood alcohol content (BAC) of a driver to .08. The bill does not force a state to accept the new standard; instead a state that fails to change the drunk driving standard to .08 BAC will lose highway funding.

HR 4475 will phase in the new standard and hopes that by 2004 the new level would be accepted nationwide. States that refuse to lower their legal limit to .08 by 2004 will lose 2 percent of their highway federal funding; the loss of federal funding increases every year by 2 percent until it levels at 8 percent in 2007. If a state adopts the lower limit in 2008, then all lost funds from the preceding years would be reimbursed.

Currently, 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have the lower BAC in place; the remaining 31 states consider .10 legally drunk.

Spearheaded by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), proponents of the lower level cite a decrease in alcohol- related accidents and deaths as the main impetus for lowering the standard. MADD estimates that a lower standard could save upwards of 500 lives a year. A report by the National Transportation Safety Board adopted June 27 states that the risk of a "single vehicle crash at high-BAC level" increases from 2.78 percent at levels between .06 and .08 to 12 percent at levels between .08 and .10.

Opponents of the bill--primarily restaurateurs and companies from the beverage industry--argue that the numbers put forward by MADD do not add up. The American Beverage Institute (ABI), a lobbying organization representing the interests of restaurants and alcohol producers, cite Maryland's 12 percent decrease in drunk-driving fatalities in 1999 while maintaining .10 as the standard level of intoxication as evidence that there is no need for a new standard. Opponents also note that despite having a .10 BAC standard, New York and Ohio report the safest driving records

The two sides also clash on what the new level would mean for average Americans. The ABI contends, citing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data that a 120-pound woman can be arrested at .08 after consuming two glasses of wine over a two-hour period. MADD, on the other hand, argues that the new level promotes moderate drinking, and it cites another NHTSA statistic that "a 170-pound man must have four drinks in one hour on an empty stomach to reach a .08 percent BAC level. A 137-pound woman would reach .08 BAC after about three drinks in an hour on an empty stomach."

The arguments will continue as the bill was to go to the floor of the House today, and, although it is expected to pass, will receive some light opposition from representatives. From there it is anticipated the bill will move speedily to the Senate and onto the president, who has vowed to accept this "common-sense nationwide limit" that will "make America's streets and highways safer for all."

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