OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Dui Reporting Act

Floor Speech

Date: March 8, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation Criminal Justice

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the DUI Reporting Act, a bill I introduced today with my colleague Steve Chabot along with the support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a bipartisan coalition of Representatives from across the United States.

If enacted, it would address the loophole in our nation's drunken- driving laws that enables repeat DUI offenders to be charged and tried; as first-time offenders because of inconsistent reporting.

Currently, when police make a drunk driving arrest, they don't always have access to information about all of the driver's previous arrests for driving under the influence.

The reason is because not all police report DUI arrests to either the National Crime Information Center, or ``NCIC'' for short, or the Next Generation Identification database, or ``NGI,'' which are the national crime databases that can be made instantly available to police right from their patrol cars.

The consequences of this lack of reporting can prove tragic. Just a few years ago there was a terrible accident in northern Mississippi, just outside of my Congressional District. Two teenagers from Memphis were killed when the car they were driving was struck by a drunk driver who had accrued seven DUI charges since 2008 and had been allowed to plead guilty five times to a first-offense DUI.

When the law enforcement officer ran the suspect's driving record in the national database, his past DUI convictions never showed up.

This is shameful. A DUI somewhere should be recognized as a DUI anywhere. It should not matter where you were caught driving drunk. If you drive drunk, previous offenses should be recorded and penalties should increase so innocent lives can be saved.

The accrual of multiple first-time DUI offenses is unconscionable and must be brought to an end.

Our bill will save lives by enacting common-sense, bipartisan reforms to harmonize reporting standards for DUI offenses across the states.

I urge my colleagues to help pass it quickly.

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