UNDERAGE DRINKING LAW REPEALED THAT THREATENED FEDERAL ROAD FUNDS
Tennessee lawmakers have repealed an underage drunken driving law that threatened to cost the state $60 million in road money by running afoul of federal zero-tolerance standards. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation Wednesday. A law that went into effect in July had raised the driving-under-the-influence penalties for 18- through 20-year-olds. But by also raising the maximum allowable blood alcohol content from 0.08 percent to 0.02 percent for those drivers, the state stood to lose 8 percent of its federal road funding money on Oct. 1 Gov. Bill Haslam hastily called lawmakers into a special session this week to reinstate the original rule, along with more lenient penalties for drivers below the legal drinking age.