National Minimum Drinking Age Act

National Minimum Drinking Age Act

Long title	An Act to encourage a uniform minimum drinking age of 21; to combat drugged driving, improve law enforcement and provide incentives to the states to reduce drunk driving.
Acronyms (colloquial)	NMDAA
Nicknames	National Minimum Drinking Age act of 1984
Enacted by	the 98th United States Congress
Effective	July 17, 1984 33 years ago
Citations
Public law	98-363
Statutes at Large	98 Stat. 435 aka 98 Stat. 437
Codification
Titles amended	23 U.S.C.: Highways
U.S.C. sections created	23 U.S.C. ch. 1 § 158
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 4616 by Glenn M. Anderson (D–CA) on January 24, 1984 Committee consideration by House Public Works and Transportation Passed the House on April 30, 1984 (passed voice vote) Passed the Senate on June 26, 1984 (81-16, in lieu of S.Amdt. 3334) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on June 27, 1984 (agreed unanimous consent) Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (23 U.S.C. § 158) was passed by the United States Congress on July 17, 1984. It was a controversial bill that punished every state that allowed persons below 21 years to purchase and publicly possess alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by ten percent. The law was later amended, lowering the penalty to eight percent from fiscal year 2012 and beyond.

Despite its name, this act did not outlaw the consumption of alcoholic beverages by those under 21 years of age, just its purchase. However, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, and the District of Columbia extended the law into an outright ban. The minimum purchase and drinking ages is a state law, and most states still permit "underage" consumption of alcohol in some circumstances. In some states, no restriction on private consumption is made, while in others, consumption is only allowed in specific locations, in the presence of consenting and supervising family members as in the states of Colorado, Maryland, Montana, New York, Texas, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The act also does not seek to criminalize alcohol consumption during religious occasions; (e.g. communion wines, Kiddush).

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