[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3998 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






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 messaging 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 incidents 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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Jackie Walorski Enhancing Necessary 
Data on Illegal School Bus Passing Act''.

SEC. 2. PROGRAM ON ILLEGAL PASSING INCIDENTS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the National Highway 
Traffic Safety Administration shall establish a program to provide 
grants to eligible entities to carry out a demonstration project to 
monitor and collect data on incidents of illegal passing of stopped 
school buses.
    (b) Applications.--Upon the establishment of the program under 
subsection (a), the Administrator shall solicit applications, in such 
form and requiring such information as the Administrator determines is 
appropriate, from eligible entities to participate in the program.
    (c) Selection.--
            (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the deadline 
        for submitting applications under subsection (b), as determined 
        by the Administrator, the Administrator shall provide grants to 
        not more than 12 eligible entities to carry out a demonstration 
        project under the program established under this section.
            (2) Criteria.--In selecting eligible entities to receive a 
        grant under this section, the Administrator shall--
                    (A) select entities located in--
                            (i) urban, rural, and suburban communities; 
                        and
                            (ii) geographic areas that account for 
                        varying weather patterns;
                    (B) ensure that a range of socioeconomic and 
                demographic backgrounds are represented across the 
                selected entities;
                    (C) select at least 1 entity that has publicly 
                operated school bus fleets;
                    (D) select at least 1 entity that has privately 
                operated school bus fleets;
                    (E) select entities that have the ability to work 
                cooperatively with local law enforcement to carry out a 
                project described in subsection (d);
                    (F) select at least 1 entity that is a tribal 
                educational agency; and
                    (G) select--
                            (i) at least 1 entity that has in place a 
                        local campaign to combat incidents of illegal 
                        passing of stopped school buses;
                            (ii) at least 1 entity that has in place 
                        countermeasures to stop such incidents; and
                            (iii) at least 1 entity that does not have 
                        in place such a campaign or such 
                        countermeasures.
    (d) Demonstration Projects.--A recipient of a grant under this 
section shall use such grant to carry out a project to monitor and 
collect data on incidents of illegal passing of stopped school buses, 
including a description of--
            (1) the number of incidents that occur each day;
            (2) traffic patterns or characteristics of locations in 
        which such incidents occur, including--
                    (A) road conditions;
                    (B) time and location of such incidents;
                    (C) lighting and weather conditions at the time 
                such incidents occurred; and
                    (D) the side of the school bus on which such 
                incidents occurred;
            (3) the drivers involved in such incidents, including--
                    (A) the age and sex of the driver;
                    (B) a description of whether any law enforcement 
                action was taken against the driver and, if so, a 
                summary of such action;
                    (C) whether a driver has a record of traffic 
                citations; and
                    (D) whether distracted driving was involved in such 
                incidents; and
            (4) any other information the Administrator determines is 
        able to be collected in order to prepare the public safety 
        messaging campaign required under section 3.
    (e) Report to Administrator.--Upon completion of a demonstration 
project carried out with a grant provided under this section, a grant 
recipient shall submit to the Administrator a report containing the 
data collected during such project.
    (f) Report to Congress.--Not later than 1 year after the 
Administrator provides grants to eligible entities under subsection 
(c)(1), the Administrator shall prepare a report describing the 
findings of the demonstration projects carried out with such grants and 
submit such report to Congress.
    (g) Definition of Eligible Entity.--In this section, the term 
``eligible entity'' means a local educational agency (as defined in 
section 8101 of the Elementary And Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 7801) or a tribal educational agency (as defined in section 
6132(b) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 7452(b))).

SEC. 3. NATIONAL PUBLIC SAFETY MESSAGING CAMPAIGN.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date on which the 
Administrator submits the report required under section 2(f), the 
Administrator shall produce and distribute a national public safety 
messaging campaign to increase awareness and education about the 
dangers of illegal passing of stopped school buses.
    (b) Requirements.--In producing and distributing the national 
public safety messaging campaign under subsection (a), the 
Administrator shall--
            (1) incorporate the findings contained in the report 
        submitted under subsection (2)(f) in the campaign, including 
        distributing the campaign to targeted sectors of the public 
        based on such report;
            (2) ensure that the campaign includes radio, television, 
        and social media advertising and is not limited to only digital 
        downloads or regional distribution; and
            (3) with respect to television advertising, seek 
        advertising time on key national broadcasts with a wide 
        audience.
    (c) Training.--Not later than 1 year after the date on which the 
Administrator submits the report required under section 2(f), the 
Administrator shall modify educational materials created for traffic 
safety resource prosecutors and State agencies responsible for 
administering driver's license laws to include more data on the dangers 
of illegal passing of stopped school buses and emphasize the importance 
of strong enforcement of laws prohibiting the passing of stopped school 
buses.
    (d) Pupil Transportation Safety.--The Administrator shall include 
in the next scheduled edition of the biennial highway safety 
countermeasure guide published by the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration that is provided to State highway safety offices 
information about pupil transportation safety and effective 
countermeasures to address illegal passing of stopped school buses.

SEC. 4. MODEL LEGISLATION.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the Secretary of 
Transportation completes the review of illegal passing laws conducted 
pursuant to section 24110(a) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs 
Act (23 U.S.C. 402 note), the Secretary shall, in consultation with the 
National Conference of State Legislatures, develop model legislation to 
address incidents of illegal passing of stopped school buses.
    (b) Requirement.--The model legislation developed under subsection 
(a) shall require that a citation for the illegal passing of a stopped 
school bus be classified as a moving violation.
                                 <all>