[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 165 (Thursday, November 5, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1607-E1608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HIRE MORE HEROES ACT OF 2015

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. GWEN MOORE

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 4, 2015

  The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union 
had under consideration the bill (H.R. 22) to amend the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt employees with health coverage under 
TRICARE or the Veterans Administration from being taken into account 
for purposes of determining the employers to which the employer mandate 
applies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chair, a driver's license is not only a rite of 
passage for many youth but also a gateway to employment opportunities 
and to jobs that are increasingly located far from public 
transportation.
  In my district, the majority of job openings in the Milwaukee area 
are beyond the bus lines.
  Yet, vast disparities exist in access to this critical document 
needed for the world of work, especially among minority youth who live 
in the poorest neighborhoods.
  According to a recent report, only 4% of over 6,500 sixteen-year-olds 
in some of Milwaukee's poorest zip codes have driver's licenses in good 
standing. In contrast, in wealthier zip codes, over 30% of sixteen-
year-olds have driver's licenses in good standing.
  Less than 25 percent of the 19,000 black males age 16 to 24 in 
Milwaukee County had a driver's license in good standing in 2015, 
compared to nearly half of the 32,000 white males in that age group.
  29% of African American females ages 16 to 24 in Milwaukee County 
have a driver's license in good standing, compared to 57% of the white 
females in that age cohort.
  Only 12% of 17-year-old African American males in Milwaukee Country 
have driver's licenses in good standing.
  One reason for this disparity is that in the poorest neighborhoods, 
there are few families that are able to afford the costs of classroom 
and behind-the-wheel driving instruction now required for licensing of 
school-age youth.
  My state, Wisconsin, ended state support for driver education in 
March 2004 after the federal government stopped supporting driver's-ed 
in schools.
  According to NHTSA, in the 1970s in all States and the District of 
Columbia, about 95 percent of eligible students received driver 
education coursework, usually in their high schools. Now, there are 
minimal or no funds available for effective program management in 
States and jurisdictions and many programs, in whole or in part, have 
been removed from the schools altogether, or are only offered after 
school, on weekends, or during summer vacation.
  A number of other states have eliminated funding for driver's 
education in schools even as they are moving to Graduated Driver's 
licensing requirements that impose additional costs on young people 
seeking to drive legally.
  Graduated Driving License systems often include a learner's permit 
period, followed by a provision license with nighttime restrictions 
during late night hours, limitations on the passengers teens may carry, 
and prohibition of use of any electronic communication device while 
driving, followed by a period of time when teens may drive unsupervised 
without crashes or citations. They often include mandated classroom 
instruction as well as behind the wheel time.
  Congress is incentivizing states to adopt GDL systems.
  As publicly funded driver's education declines, the only other way to 
get driver's training is through paying private providers. However, 
this becomes a barrier for low-income and low-resource teens who still 
need to comply with increasing GDL requirements.
  My amendment would allow the use of teen driving safety funds to 
support school based driver's education, especially to meet a state's 
GDL requirements. States that choose to take advantage of this option 
will help driving safety among this high risk populace, reduce racial 
and economic disparities that exist between those who hold and do not 
hold a valid driver's license, and help address lack of employment 
opportunities for youth (limited by lack of transportation).
  Improving access to quality driver's education classes can be an 
effective way to reduce the crash risk for young drivers by focusing 
efforts on areas of teen driving that show the most promise for 
improving safety.
  Allowing for the use of federal funds to support school-based 
driver's education will ensure that more young drivers can meet the new 
requirements and be safer drivers. It would also help reduce unlicensed 
driving.
  A 2012 report by NHTSA (A Fresh Look at Driver Education in America) 
found that driver education appears to do a good job in preparing 
students to pass State licensing examinations and that expanding driver 
education training beyond the current classroom and behind-the-wheel 
training by integrating it with graduated driver licensing may have 
increased traffic safety benefits for young drivers, among other 
findings.
  I also want to talk about another reason for the wide gap in access 
to driver's licenses for low-income youth; the growing practice by 
state and local government of suspending licenses for nonpayment of 
fines that have nothing to do with unsafe driving. My amendment 
initially addressed this issue but I dropped those provisions. I have 
introduced a bill, Young Adults Driving Safety Act of 2015 (H.R. 3792) 
to address this second issue.
  Court-ordered suspension of driving privileges for low-income 
residents of all ages is increasingly being used to collect municipal 
fines, forfeitures and fees (including violations unrelated to 
driving).

[[Page E1608]]

  According to the American Association of Motor Vehicle 
Administrators, ``what was originally intended as a sanction to address 
poor driving behavior is now used as a mechanism to gain compliance 
with non-highway safety, or social non-conformance, reasons.''
  Suspending driver's license mainly to collect outstanding municipal 
debt rather than for public safety reason disproportionately impacts 
the poorest neighborhoods.
  In my district, a review of four years of failure to pay fines 
suspensions (from 2008 through 2011) in Milwaukee County for those ages 
16 through 19 found 8,700 teens received driver's license suspensions 
for failure to pay court fines and forfeitures.
  Most of them (85% of the total) did not have driver's licenses so a 
suspension added a two year wait to them becoming eligible for their 
license unless they pay their outstanding municipal tickets and court 
fees.
  We need to address that issue as well as we work to ensure that more 
young adults, of every race, gender, and income bracket, have a fair 
chance to get the skills they need to safely operate a motor vehicle.

                          ____________________