Responsibility.org and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) have partnered for 12 years to support state efforts to eliminate drunk and impaired driving. Since its inception in 2014, the program has awarded approximately $1.35 million to State Highway Safety Offices (SHSOs) nationwide to help make our roads safer, strengthen the complex DUI system, and prevent lives from being lost.
The grants, awarded in $40,000 increments, will help SHSOs and criminal justice professionals improve their ability to identify drunk and impaired drivers and take the necessary steps to remove them from the roadways through enhanced toxicology testing, mobile breath-testing tools and specialized training. Additional steps can then be made to address the needs of the drivers–education, mental health services, or other remediations–to ensure that the cycle of drunk and impaired driving is not repeated.
2026 Grant Information
In 2026, grants were awarded to professionals in Kansas, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Each of these one-year grants are awarded after careful consideration from representatives from Responsibility.org and GHSA. More than a dozen applications were submitted, showing the commitment and dedication to taking steps to eliminate drunk and impaired driving throughout the country.
Grant winners are required to include a comprehensive evaluation component as part of their research and investment, provide monthly updates, and present a final rollout of their findings and outcomes to substantiate the value of the grant.
2025 Grant Information
Four State Highway Safety Offices received a total of $120,000 in funding in 2025:
- The Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) will provide the Teton County Sheriff’s Office with new breathalyzers and train all patrol deputies on the new equipment to ensure consistent, accurate roadside testing. Through community education events and a media campaign, WYDOT will also raise awareness about drug- and alcohol-impaired driving, encourage safer driving behaviors and support long-term cultural change around impaired driving.
- The District of Columbia Highway Safety Office is partnering with the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) to implement a forward-looking research initiative focused on the development and validation f oral fluid testing methods for impaired driving enforcement. This project is designed to support the District of Columbia’s preparedness for anticipated legislation that would authorize roadside screening and post-arrest evidential testing using oral fluid samples.
- The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is partnering with the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education to evaluate 4 years of existing toxicology data from more than 60,000 impaired-driving cases to identify trends in substance use, including polysubstance detection and common drug combinations. By leveraging standardized data and advanced statistical techniques, the project will also support improvements in officer training, detection strategies and policy development.
- Through a grant from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, the Vermont Criminal Justice Council will give its Drug Recognition Experts hands-on training through “green labs,” an innovative and successful training model where officers can observe the real-time effects of cannabis on volunteers in a safe, controlled setting. This practical approach will help officers better recognize the signs of impairment, improve roadway safety and reduce crashes involving drug-impaired drivers.