Tennessee Legislature Passes On 'Pass The Bottle' Again

NASHVILLE, TN — Tennesseans can keep knocking back those road sodas and to-go cocktails, so long as they confine their partying to the passenger seat, as the General Assembly has killed the so-called "Pass The Bottle Bill" once again.

The state loses about $18 million annually in federal road funding because it allows open containers in cars, so long as said open container doesn't belong to the driver. Because of Tennessee's intransigence, the feds require that $18 million instead be spent on drunken-driving prevention efforts. Changing the law was part of Gov. Bill Haslam's wide-ranging transportation improvement plan and has been a pet cause of State Sen. Mae Beavers and others for years.

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Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, who was carrying the bill for the governor, said he abandoned it because it was distracting from the governor's broader efforts at infrastructure improvement and because it lacked support in the legislature.

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