Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009
Latest action. Referred to the subcommitteeA smaller panel inside a standing committee with jurisdiction over a slice of its subject matter. Most hearings and the first markup usually happen here.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) on Highways and Transit.
Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 - Establishes in the Department of Transportation the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Program.
Directs the Secretary of Transportation, for FY2009-FY2011, to: (1) encourage a dealer, dismantler, and scrap recycler to participate in the Program; (2) authorize the issuance of a redeemable voucher by a participating dealer to the registered owner of a high polluting automobile for the purchase of a new fuel efficient automobile upon transfer of the eligible automobile title to a participating dealer, dismantler, or scrap recycler; (3) require participating dealers to accept such vouchers as partial payment for the purchase of a new fuel efficient automobile; and (4) electronically transfer funds to a participating dealer upon receipt of a voucher and relevant certifications from the dealer.
Requires any dealer receiving a certificate of title to any eligible high polluting automobile in exchange for a CARS voucher to certify to the Secretary that: (1) such title has been retired or otherwise extinguished and not re-issued; and (2) the dealer has received from a dismantler or recycler a certification that such automobile, engine, and drive train will be crushed or shredded within a certain period, will be processed prior to crushing or shredding to ensure removal and appropriate disposition of specified products, and has not been, and will not be, registered, sold, leased, exchanged, distributed, or otherwise operated at any time as an automobile in the United States or in any foreign country.
Requires the Secretary to promulgate regulations that allow operators of bus and rail public transit systems to redeem the allowable value of properly issued vouchers to offset the purchase price of annual or monthly transit passes or any other form of individual transit fare credit designated by the transit system operator.
Sets forth civil penalties for violations of this Act.
Directs the Secretary, for model year 2011, to revise the Program to provide for the issuance of vouchers to offset the purchase of a new battery electric automobile or a new plug-in electric drive automobile.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on March 17, 2009. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 18, 2009: Referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Betty Sutton (D-OH) introduced it on March 17, 2009, and 35 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 30 Democrats, 5 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 17, 2009, 6386 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 6385 days ago, on March 18, 2009.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers