Free Republic

[Snip]...As part of Senate Bill 1813 (known as MAP-21), Congress has inserted language that would oblige the Secretary of State to revoke or deny a passport to any U.S. citizen who the IRS Commissioner deems as having "seriously delinquent tax debt."...For starters, in what may be one of the most depraved Big Brother moves on record, section 31406 of the bill makes it mandatory for "black box" event recorders to be installed in every new passenger vehicle starting with model year 2015.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will vote on a two-year, $109 billion highway reauthorization bill this week... The committee has not yet said how it will pay for the $12 billion Funding would go from $122 million to $1 billion a year, and the cap on federal cost-sharing would go from 33% to 49%... The bill would create a new National Freight Network Program... Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the ranking member of the committee, said he was pleased to join Boxer and other committee leaders on the measure...