Committee advances bill moving license-suspension authority to BMV, citing public-safety benefits

The Committee on Homeland Security, Justice, and Public Safety voted on June 4, 2026, to forward Bill 36-0224 to the Committee on Rules and Judiciary after testimony from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the bill’s sponsor. Senator Avery L. Lewis, the bill sponsor, said the measure modernizes an existing point system, strengthens driver education and shifts routine administrative suspensions from the Superior Court to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) to reduce court workload.

"This is not a new program," Senator Avery L. Lewis said, describing the bill as a modernization that would make the system "more efficient, fairer and more focused on public safety." Director Barbara Jackson McIntosh of the BMV told the committee the agency has prepared notice procedures (letters at 6, 9 and 12 points), a public-education campaign, and administrative processes to preserve due process while handling suspensions more quickly.

Under the proposal, license-suspension authority for excessive point accumulation would be administered by the BMV rather than through a petition to the Superior Court; however, Director McIntosh and multiple senators confirmed that drivers would retain appeal rights to the court. The bill would change point reduction from a calendar-year calculation to a rolling 12-month period, allow drivers to reduce points by completing an approved driving-improvement course (with limits when points stem from an accident), and increase certain penalties cited in the bill text and testimony.

Committee members pressed testifiers on specifics. Senator Ray Fona and others asked whether the change would concentrate investigative, enforcement and adjudicative functions in one office and whether an independent hearing officer would be used to preserve impartial adjudication. Director McIntosh told the committee the adjudication of guilt remains a judicial function; the BMV would apply points after a court decision and would operate a hearing-office process for administrative reviews, with appeals to the Superior Court still available.

Senators also questioned whether insurers would use the point system to adjust premiums; McIntosh said discussions with insurers are ongoing but that, because the prior system lacked active enforcement, insurers are not currently differentiated by point status. Senator Franklin D. Johnson and others urged the BMV to pursue data-sharing with insurers so safe drivers receive credit.

The bill sponsor and the BMV cited citation data to justify the measure; numbers were read into the record by both the sponsor and the BMV, but the testimony contained inconsistent counts (for example, the sponsor cited a figure of 4,518 negligent-driving citations for a specified period, while the BMV also read fiscal-year totals—7,149 in FY2023, 8,510 in FY2024 and about 4,675 so far in FY2026). Committee material and testimony did not reconcile all of those figures.

The committee approved a motion by Senator Avery L. Lewis, seconded by Senator Franklin D. Johnson, to vote favorably on Bill 36-0224 and forward it to Rules and Judiciary. Roll call recorded five votes in favor and two absences. The committee record notes the committee intends to preserve appeal rights and that the BMV will implement notice and administrative-review procedures before full rollout.

The measure now moves to the committee on Rules and Judiciary for further consideration.