If the Obama Administration has its way, all school bus drivers convicted of texting while behind the wheel will see their CDLs revoked, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced during the final day of a national distracted driving summit in Washington, D.C.

LaHood added that the Department of Transportation will work with Congress to ban all text messaging by any driver while driving either a commercial or private vehicle and to restrict the use of cell phones by truck and interstate bus operators. The pledge came on the heels of an Executive Order on Wednesday that all federal employees are not only prohibited from text messaging or using electronic equipment while driving any government or private vehicle when conducting official government business.

“This order sends a very clear signal to the American public that distracted driving is dangerous and unacceptable. It shows that the federal government is leading by example,” said LaHood. “I fully expect that all 58,000 DOT employees and contractors will take this order seriously. Let’s show our friends and families that we can resist the temptation to answer the phone, send a message, or allow some other distraction to interfere with our driving.”

Also on Wednesday, during the first day of the distracted driving summit, a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute researcher said that all state laws banning cell phone use while driving should include language that prohibits any cell phone use in school buses or by newly-licensed teen drivers in personal vehicles. As the summit concluded today, LaHood also called upon all state and local governments to work with the feds on incorporating distracted driving regulations into state highway plans and to continue passing primary cell phone ban laws for all types of vehicles, “especially school buses.”

The two-day summit brought together safety experts, researchers, industry representatives, elected officials and members of the public who shared their expertise, experiences and ideas for reducing distracted driving behavior and addressed the safety risk posed by this growing problem across all modes of transportation. Authoritative speakers from around the nation led interactive sessions on a number of key topics including the extent and impact of distracted driving, current research, regulations and best practices. Individuals from 49 states participated in the summit via the Web.