2019 Responsibility.org Leadership Awards
Every year, Responsibility.org presents Leadership Awards to policymakers who gone above and beyond with helping in the fight against underage drinking and impaired driving. We are honored to award the 2019 Leadership Award to the following elected officials:
Attorney General:
• The Honorable Ken Paxton (R-Texas)
• The Honorable Letitia James (D-New York)
• The Honorable Josh Kaul (D-Wisconsin)
• The Honorable Steve Marshall (R-Alabama)
These State Attorneys General were instrumental in getting the message out about the importance of preventing underage drinking during Alcohol Responsibility Month in April. Additionally we worked with General Marshall to highlight the National District Attorneys Association’s online DUI Prosecutor Course. This free course qualifies for CLE credit and teaches prosecutors how to successfully prosecute a DUI case.
Governor:
• The Honorable Larry Hogan (R- Maryland) – for once again introducing and advocating for a felony DUI law and also for being one of two states to pilot the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) that, once fully developed, would not allow a vehicle to start if the driver’s BAC is .08 or above. This effort is called the Driven to Protect Initiative.
• The Honorable Gretchen Whitmer (D-Michigan) for signing the bill into law that expanded the nation’s only legislatively authorized oral fluid pilot program from a 5-county effort into a statewide effort to fight drug-impaired driving.
• The Honorable Charlie Baker (R-Massachusetts) for his continued efforts to pass effective drug-impaired driving prevention legislation and a bill to expand the use of ignition interlocks to all DUI offenders.
• The Honorable Ralph Northam (D-Virginia) –for leading Virginia to become the first state to pilot the the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) under the Driven to Protect Initiative and for his longstanding leadership on DUI and underage drinking prevention.
Members of Congress:
• Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R- Washington-5) for her continued focus on preventing impaired driving and her introduction of H.R. 3888 (Impaired Driving Study Act of 2019
• Congressman Jerry McNerney (D – California-9) for his co-sponsorship of HR 3888 (Impaired Driving Study Act of 2019
State Legislators:
• Representative Jonathan Singer (D-Colorado-11) for his continued Leadership on prevention of driving under the influence of drugs
• Representative Jeff Weninger (R-Arizona-17) who sponsored a Social Host Law
• Representative Richard Heath (R-Kentucky-2), Senator Morgan McGarvey (D-Kentucky-19), Senator Whitney Westerfield (R-Kentucky-03), Senator Danny Carroll (R-Kentucky-02), Senator Steve Meredith (R-Kentucky-05), and Senator Reggie Thomas (D-Kentucky-13) for leading the initiative to expand the state’s ignition interlock law to all DUI offenders
• Representative Patrick Corey (R-Maine-25) for sponsoring the Impaired Driving Data Collection Law
• Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-New Mexico-15) for sponsoring the DUI Child Endangerment Law
• Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-New Jersey-22), Senator Joe Lagana (D-New Jersey-38), Assemblywoman JoAnn Downey (D-New Jersey-11), and Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-New Jersey-14) for leading the successful initiative to expand the ignition interlock law to all DUI offenders.
• Assemblyman Ed Chau (D-California-49) and Senator Pat Bates (R-California-36) for CA AB 397 making it a crime for a person who is under the influence of a drug to drive a vehicle.
• Senator Peter MacGregor (R- Michigan-28) for leading the effort to expand Michigan’s oral fluid pilot program from a 5-county effort to a statewide program that will help detect drug-impaired drivers
We honor and thank each of these policymakers for their leadership and support to eliminate impaired driving and underage drinking. We look forward to working with them in the future.
