The federal government just decided it gets to sit in your car and decide whether you're allowed to drive.
Chip Roy found a way to force a vote that could kill it — and Congress didn't see it coming.
What he buried inside the FISA bill this week could permanently rip that surveillance device out of every new car in America.
The Government Kill Switch Biden Buried in His Infrastructure Bill
In 2021, Democrats and RINOs passed a 2,700-page infrastructure bill.
On page 404, they buried Section 24220 – a mandate requiring every new passenger vehicle sold in America to be equipped with technology that monitors your driving, detects suspected impairment, and shuts your car down.
No cop pulls you over. No warrant gets signed. No judge weighs in. The software makes the call and the car obeys.
Thomas Massie said on X: "Your dashboard should not be judge, jury, and executioner."
NHTSA admitted in 2023 that the technology to comply with this mandate didn't even exist yet – but the mandate stayed on the books, and the required rule is still unfinished.
The clock is ticking toward a 2027 deadline, and every new car rolling off an assembly line after that date will come pre-loaded with government surveillance hardware.
57 Republicans Sided with Democrats to Keep It Alive
In January 2026, Massie brought an amendment to defund the kill switch mandate outright.
It failed 164 to 268 – because 57 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with 211 Democrats to keep it funded.
Rep. Keith Self of Texas called it out: "When a group of us conservatives in the House tried to repeal this Joe Biden-era mandate set to take effect next year, 57 Republicans teamed up with 211 Democrats to stop us."
He added: "That's unacceptable."
The same Republican lawmakers who ran on liberty and limited government voted to let Washington build a surveillance device into every car you will ever buy.
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania introduced the No Kill Switches in Cars Act to repeal the mandate outright.
It sits in committee with zero floor action.
Roy Is Using FISA to Get What Congress Refused to Do
The FISA reauthorization fight is dominating Capitol Hill this week – and Chip Roy is not wasting it.
Roy introduced an amendment to the FISA bill that would repeal Section 24220 entirely, stripping the kill switch mandate from federal law while Congress is already debating what the government is allowed to do to Americans without their consent.
"Republicans should not be continuing a blatantly invasive Biden-era policy that enables round-the-clock monitoring of Americans in their own cars," Roy told The Daily Signal.
"That's why I introduced an amendment to FISA to eliminate the 'kill switch' and stop this Big Brother technology from being built into new vehicles."
The timing is deliberate.
FISA Section 702 – the warrantless surveillance program the FBI uses to search through Americans' communications – is already at the center of a massive fight between privacy-minded Republicans and congressional leadership.
Roy has fought for warrant requirements on 702 searches.
Attaching the kill switch repeal to FISA forces a vote while the entire Congress is already focused on government surveillance of Americans.
Your New Car Could Shut Down While You Drive and There Is No Override
Every time you get behind the wheel of a new car after 2027, sensors will be watching – judging your eyes, your steering, your reaction time – waiting to decide if you're fit to drive.
If the system decides you aren't, the car stops.
Picture a man racing his pregnant wife to the hospital at 2 a.m.
His hands are shaking, he's driving fast, his eyes are darting – every behavioral signal the algorithm is programmed to flag as impairment.
The car shuts down.
The law has no appeals process.
You can't override it.
There is no button that says "medical emergency."
You are stranded at the mercy of an algorithm, and the only way to challenge it is after the fact – after you've already been denied access to your own property.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in United States v. Jones that GPS tracking of a vehicle is a search under the Fourth Amendment.
The kill switch goes further.
It doesn't just track where you go – it decides whether you go at all.
Unlike a police officer who has to show up, identify himself, and face accountability, the kill switch software faces none of that.
It is government enforcement with no human in the loop and no warrant required.
Roy called it what it is: "a direct threat to our Fourth Amendment rights."
MADD supports the mandate and claims it will save 10,000 lives a year – the same pitch every surveillance program in American history has used.
The Patriot Act was sold as a tool to stop terrorism and ended up being used to surveil political opponents.
Roy, Massie, and Perry understand how this works.
The 57 Republicans who voted with Democrats in January apparently don't.
This week is the last real chance to kill the kill switch before it becomes permanent equipment in every American car.
Sources:
- Virginia Grace McKinnon, "Roy Pushes FISA Amendment to Kill Biden-Era Car Surveillance Mandate," The Daily Signal, April 27, 2026.
- Mary Ellen Cagnassola, "EXCLUSIVE: 'Kill Switch' Amendment Could Shake Up The Capitol Hill FISA Fight," Daily Caller, April 27, 2026.
- Lauren Fix, "Government 'Kill Switch' in Your Next Car – And Congress Keeps Funding It," Car Coach Reports, January 26, 2026.
- BlueRibbon Coalition, "Congress Can Mandate a Kill Switch in Your Car; H.R. 1137 Would Stop It," April 2026.
