The long-term transportation funding bill just approved by Congress includes funds for researching alcohol-detection technology that could eventually be standard equipment in all new cars.

 

Under a just-passed transportation bill, research eventually could lead to this hand-held breath-alcohol monitoring device being replaced by sensing-technology in the steering wheel or gear shift of cars.

That funding — $5 million over two years — should have been stripped from the bill because it “uses American taxpayer dollars to fund something they’re not going to want in their cars,” said a group representing the restaurant industry.