Jackie Walorski Enhancing Necessary Data on Illegal School Bus Passing Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3998 To establish a program to monitor and gather data on incidents of illegal passing of stopped school buses, develop a national public safety mes- saging campaign, training materials, and model legislation to reduce such incidents, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 9, 2023 Mr. YAKYM (for himself and Ms. BROWNLEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure A BILL To establish a program to monitor and gather data on inci- dents of illegal passing of stopped school buses, develop a national public safety messaging campaign, training materials, and model legislation to reduce such incidents, 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 ‘‘Jackie Walorski En- 4 hancing Necessary Data on Illegal School Bus Passing 5 Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3998 IH SEC. 2. PROGRAM ON ILLEGAL PASSING INCIDENTS. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 2 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 3 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shall es- 4 tablish a program to provide grants to eligible entities to 5 carry out a demonstration project to monitor and collect 6 data on incidents of illegal passing of stopped school 7 buses. 8 (b) APPLICATIONS.—Upon the establishment of the 9 program under subsection (a), the Administrator shall so- 10 licit applications, in such form and requiring such infor- 11 mation as the Administrator determines is appropriate, 12 from eligible entities to participate in the program. 13 (c) SELECTION.— 14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 15 after the deadline for submitting applications under 16 subsection (b), as determined by the Administrator, 17 the Administrator shall provide grants to not more 18 than 12 eligible entities to carry out a demonstration 19 project under the program established under this 20 section. 21 (2) CRITERIA.—In selecting eligible entities to 22 receive a grant under this section, the Administrator 23 shall— 24 (A) select entities located in— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3998 IH (i) urban, rural, and suburban com- 1 munities; and 2 (ii) geographic areas that account for 3 varying weather patterns; 4 (B) ensure that a range of socioeconomic 5 and demographic backgrounds are represented 6 across the selected entities; 7 (C) select at least 1 entity that has pub- 8 licly operated school bus fleets; 9 (D) select at least 1 entity that has pri- 10 vately operated school bus fleets; 11 (E) select entities that have the ability to 12 work cooperatively with local law enforcement 13 to carry out a project described in subsection 14 (d); 15 (F) select at least 1 entity that is a tribal 16 educational agency; and 17 (G) select— 18 (i) at least 1 entity that has in place 19 a local campaign to combat incidents of il- 20 legal passing of stopped school buses; 21 (ii) at least 1 entity that has in place 22 countermeasures to stop such incidents; 23 and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3998 IH (iii) at least 1 entity that does not 1 have in place such a campaign or such 2 countermeasures. 3 (d) DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS.—A recipient of a 4 grant under this section shall use such grant to carry out 5 a project to monitor and collect data on incidents of illegal 6 passing of stopped school buses, including a description 7 of— 8 (1) the number of incidents that occur each 9 day; 10 (2) traffic patterns or characteristics of loca- 11 tions in which such incidents occur, including— 12 (A) road conditions; 13 (B) time and location of such incidents; 14 (C) lighting and weather conditions at the 15 time such incidents occurred; and 16 (D) the side of the school bus on which 17 such incidents occurred; 18 (3) the drivers involved in such incidents, in- 19 cluding— 20 (A) the age and sex of the driver; 21 (B) a description of whether any law en- 22 forcement action was taken against the driver 23 and, if so, a summary of such action; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3998 IH (C) whether a driver has a record of traffic 1 citations; and 2 (D) whether distracted driving was in- 3 volved in such incidents; and 4 (4) any other information the Administrator de- 5 termines is able to be collected in order to prepare 6 the public safety messaging campaign required 7 under section 3. 8 (e) REPORT TO ADMINISTRATOR.—Upon completion 9 of a demonstration project carried out with a grant pro- 10 vided under this section, a grant recipient shall submit to 11 the Administrator a report containing the data collected 12 during such project. 13 (f) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year 14 after the Administrator provides grants to eligible entities 15 under subsection (c)(1), the Administrator shall prepare 16 a report describing the findings of the demonstration 17 projects carried out with such grants and submit such re- 18 port to Congress. 19 (g) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—In this sec- 20 tion, the term ‘‘eligible entity’’ means a local educational 21 agency (as defined in section 8101 of the Elementary And 22 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801) or 23 a tribal educational agency (as defined in section 6132(b) 24 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 7452(b))). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3998 IH SEC. 3. NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY MESSAGING CAMPAIGN. 1 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 2 date on which the Administrator submits the report re- 3 quired under section 2(f), the Administrator shall produce 4 and distribute a national public safety messaging cam- 5 paign to increase awareness and education about the dan- 6 gers of illegal passing of stopped school buses. 7 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—In producing and distributing 8 the national public safety messaging campaign under sub- 9 section (a), the Administrator shall— 10 (1) incorporate the findings contained in the re- 11 port submitted under subsection (2)(f) in the cam- 12 paign, including distributing the campaign to tar- 13 geted sectors of the public based on such report; 14 (2) ensure that the campaign includes radio, 15 television, and social media advertising and is not 16 limited to only digital downloads or regional dis- 17 tribution; and 18 (3) with respect to television advertising, seek 19 advertising time on key national broadcasts with a 20 wide audience. 21 (c) TRAINING.—Not later than 1 year after the date 22 on which the Administrator submits the report required 23 under section 2(f), the Administrator shall modify edu- 24 cational materials created for traffic safety resource pros- 25 ecutors and State agencies responsible for administering 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 3998 IH driver’s license laws to include more data on the dangers 1 of illegal passing of stopped school buses and emphasize 2 the importance of strong enforcement of laws prohibiting 3 the passing of stopped school buses. 4 (d) PUPIL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY.—The Admin- 5 istrator shall include in the next scheduled edition of the 6 biennial highway safety countermeasure guide published 7 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 8 that is provided to State highway safety offices informa- 9 tion about pupil transportation safety and effective coun- 10 termeasures to address illegal passing of stopped school 11 buses. 12 SEC. 4. MODEL LEGISLATION. 13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 14 Secretary of Transportation completes the review of illegal 15 passing laws conducted pursuant to section 24110(a) of 16 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (23 U.S.C. 17 402 note), the Secretary shall, in consultation with the 18 National Conference of State Legislatures, develop model 19 legislation to address incidents of illegal passing of 20 stopped school buses. 21 (b) REQUIREMENT.—The model legislation developed 22 under subsection (a) shall require that a citation for the 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 3998 IH illegal passing of a stopped school bus be classified as a 1 moving violation. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:32 Jul 09, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3998.IH H3998 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS