I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1828
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue rules requiring the inclusion
of new safety equipment in school buses, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH4, 2025
Mr. C
OHENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee
on Education and Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Transportation to issue rules
requiring the inclusion of new safety equipment in school
buses, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘School Bus Safety Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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(1) 3-POINT SAFETY BELT.—The term ‘‘3-point 1
safety belt’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘Type 2
2 seat belt assembly’’ in section 571.209 of title 49, 3
Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the 4
date of enactment of this Act). 5
(2) A
UTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING SYS -6
TEM.—The term ‘‘automatic emergency braking sys-7
tem’’ means a crash avoidance system installed and 8
operational in a vehicle that consists of— 9
(A) a forward collision warning function— 10
(i) to detect vehicles and objects 11
ahead of the vehicle; and 12
(ii) to alert the operator of the vehicle 13
of an impending collision; and 14
(B) a crash-imminent braking function to 15
provide automatic braking when forward-look-16
ing sensors of the vehicle indicate that— 17
(i) a crash is imminent; and 18
(ii) the operator of the vehicle is not 19
reacting in a timely or appropriate man-20
ner. 21
(3) E
VENT DATA RECORDER .—The term ‘‘event 22
data recorder’’ has the meaning given the term in 23
section 563.5(b) of title 49, Code of Federal Regula-24
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tions (as in effect on the date of enactment of this 1
Act). 2
(4) S
CHOOL BUS.—The term ‘‘school bus’’ has 3
the meaning given the term ‘‘schoolbus’’ in section 4
30125(a) of title 49, United States Code. 5
(5) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 6
the Secretary of Transportation. 7
SEC. 3. SCHOOL BUS SAFETY. 8
(a) S
EATBELTREQUIREMENT.—Not later than 1 9
year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 10
shall issue final rules prescribing or amending motor vehi-11
cle safety standards under chapter 301 of title 49, United 12
States Code, to require school buses with a gross vehicle 13
weight rating of greater than 10,000 pounds to be 14
equipped with a 3-point safety belt at each designated 15
seating position. 16
(b) F
IREPROTECTIONREQUIREMENTS.— 17
(1) F
IRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS .— 18
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 19
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-20
retary shall issue rules prescribing or amending 21
motor vehicle safety standards under chapter 22
301 of title 49, United States Code, to require 23
school buses to be equipped with fire suppres-24
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sion systems that, at a minimum, address en-1
gine fires. 2
(B) A
PPLICATION.—The standards pre-3
scribed or amendments made under subpara-4
graph (A) shall apply to school buses manufac-5
tured in, or imported into, the United States on 6
or after the effective date of the standards or 7
amendments. 8
(2) F
IREWALLS.— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 10
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-11
retary shall issue rules prescribing or amending 12
motor vehicle safety standards under chapter 13
301 of title 49, United States Code, for school 14
buses, especially school buses with engines that 15
extend beyond the firewall, to ensure that no 16
hazardous quantity of gas or flame can pass 17
through the firewall from the engine compart-18
ment to the passenger compartment. 19
(B) A
PPLICATION.—The standards pre-20
scribed or amendments made under subpara-21
graph (A) shall apply to school buses manufac-22
tured in, or imported into, the United States on 23
or after the effective date of the standards or 24
amendments. 25
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(3) INTERIOR FLAMMABILITY AND SMOKE EMIS -1
SIONS CHARACTERISTICS .—Not later than 1 year 2
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-3
retary shall amend section 571.302 of title 49, Code 4
of Federal Regulations (relating to Federal Motor 5
Vehicle Safety Standard Number 302), to adopt, 6
with respect to a motor vehicle (as defined in section 7
30102(a) of title 49, United States Code), perform-8
ance standards for interior flammability and smoke 9
emissions characteristics that are not less rigorous 10
than the performance standards for interior flamma-11
bility and smoke emissions characteristics applicable 12
to— 13
(A) a compartment occupied by the crew 14
or passengers of a transport category airplane 15
(within the meaning of part 25 of title 14, Code 16
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the date 17
of enactment of this Act)) under section 25.853 18
of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (as in 19
effect on the date of enactment of this Act); 20
and 21
(B) a passenger car or locomotive cab (as 22
those terms are defined in section 238.5 of title 23
49, Code of Federal Regulations (as in effect on 24
the date of enactment of this Act)) under sec-25
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tion 238.103 of title 49, Code of Federal Regu-1
lations (as in effect on the date of enactment of 2
this Act). 3
(c) O
THERSAFETYEQUIPMENTREQUIREMENTS.— 4
Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 5
Act, the Secretary shall issue final rules— 6
(1) prescribing or amending motor vehicle safe-7
ty standards under chapter 301 of title 49, United 8
States Code, to require school buses to be equipped 9
with— 10
(A) an automatic emergency braking sys-11
tem; 12
(B) an event data recorder; and 13
(C) an electronic stability control system 14
(as defined in section 571.136 of title 49, Code 15
of Federal Regulations (as in effect on the date 16
of enactment of this Act)); and 17
(2) amending part 383 of title 49, Code of Fed-18
eral Regulations, to require not less than 8 hours of 19
behind-the-wheel instruction for operators of school 20
buses, which shall be accrued— 21
(A) on public roads; and 22
(B) with a trained instructor who pos-23
sesses a valid commercial driver’s license with a 24
school bus endorsement. 25
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(d) OBSTRUCTIVESLEEPAPNEA.—Not later than 1 1
year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Adminis-2
trator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration 3
and the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Adminis-4
tration shall complete the rulemaking process and publish 5
a final rule with respect to the advance notice of proposed 6
rulemaking entitled ‘‘Evaluation of Safety Sensitive Per-7
sonnel for Moderate-to-Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea’’ 8
(81 Fed. Reg. 12642 (March 10, 2016)). 9
(e) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The standards prescribed or 10
amendments made under subsections (a) and (c) shall 11
apply with respect to school buses manufactured in, or im-12
ported into, the United States on or after the date that 13
is 1 year after the date on which the Secretary issues the 14
rules required under the applicable subsection. 15
SEC. 4. STUDIES. 16
(a) M
OTION-ACTIVATEDDETECTIONSYSTEMS.— 17
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after 18
the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 19
of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administra-20
tion (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Adminis-21
trator’’) shall complete a study with respect to the 22
benefits of requiring school buses manufactured in, 23
or imported into, the United States to be equipped 24
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with a motion-activated detection system that is ca-1
pable of— 2
(A) detecting pedestrians, bicyclists, and 3
other road users located near the exterior of the 4
school bus; and 5
(B) alerting the operator of the school bus 6
of the road users described in subparagraph 7
(A). 8
(2) R
EGULATIONS.—Not later than 1 year after 9
the date on which the Administrator completes the 10
study under paragraph (1), the Administrator shall 11
issue rules requiring school buses manufactured in, 12
or imported into, the United States to effectuate 13
that requirement. 14
(b) S
AFETYBELTALERT.—Not later than 2 years 15
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 16
shall complete a study on the benefits of requiring school 17
buses manufactured in, or imported into, the United 18
States to be equipped with a system to alert the operator 19
of the school bus if a passenger in the school bus is not 20
wearing a 3-point safety belt equipped on the school bus. 21
SEC. 5. SAFETY GRANT PROGRAM. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 23
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transpor-24
tation shall establish a grant program to provide grants 25
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to States to make subgrants to local educational agen-1
cies— 2
(1) to assist the local educational agencies in 3
purchasing school buses equipped with— 4
(A) 3-point safety belts at each designated 5
seating position; or 6
(B) any other school bus safety feature de-7
scribed in section 3 or 4; and 8
(2) to assist the local educational agencies in 9
modifying school buses already owned by the local 10
educational agency to be equipped with— 11
(A) 3-point safety belts at each designated 12
seating position; or 13
(B) any other school bus safety feature de-14
scribed in section 3 or 4. 15
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 16
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are nec-17
essary to carry out this section. 18
Æ
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