Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

Recently Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) successfully argued for a line item to be added to the House fiscal year 2007 Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act of 2007, an amendment to one mouthful of a funding bill that would essentially channel $70,000 from the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Safety and Operations Office.

The news received little if any ink in national publications and barely a passing mention in the trades. School Transportation News to the rescue, as the funding is, you guessed it, school-bus related.

Kucinich’s amendment, H.R. 5516, overwhelmingly passed on a House floor voice vote by a 406 to 22 margin, would use the $70,000 to fund a new job position at the FRA to assist in the national reporting of school buses crossing railroad track inventory and such things as crossing bucks, stop arm gates, flashing warning lights and bells. A small sum to be sure, in the grand scheme of things, especially for monitoring the activities of all 50 states. Applicants would certainly have to thank their lucky stars for the federal pension, as the job sounds like it would be rife with migraines.

There are nearly a quarter-million railroad crossings in the United States, of which more than nearly 150,000 intersect public roads.

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today out of deep concern for the safety of children who ride school buses over railroad tracks in Ohio and across the country,” Kucinich said on June 13 from the House floor. “My amendment will ensure that there is a person working full time in the Federal Railroad Administration who can help us resolve the inadequate reporting.”

On the surface a commendable position to be sure as it promises “to ensure that railroad crossings frequently used by school buses are in compliance with Federal safety requirements,” Kucinich continued. He correctly pointed out that current federal law (CFR 23 Section 646.214) “requires that crossings be equipped with automatic gates with flashing light signals when a substantial number of school buses cross.”

Yet, the funds would essentially create more red tape without addressing the underlying problem. States already report their railroad grade inventory to the FRA, but on a voluntary basis. The result is a garble of incomplete and inaccurate records, some of which reflect the state of crossings 20 years ago. Simply hiring an additional person to oversee the mess would hardly do much to correct matters.

While the FRA exists to enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad assistance programs and conduct research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy, it holds no true authority to require any reporting from states. This despite FRA petitions each of the past three congressional sessions for legislators to authorize it the power to enforce state inventory data recording and reporting responsibilities. While it remains to be seen when and if the Senate acts on H.R. 5516, as long as the reporting remains voluntary it will always be inaccurate.

With inevitable red tape to first be cut and federal hoops to jump though, couldn’t that $70,000 be better spent elsewhere, like for improved school bus rail crossing safety programs, rather than to pay for more federal pencil pushing? Seems like a waste to me.

What it basically comes down to is a state issue. Do you know how yours reports its school bus rail crossing data? Does it report at all? The mere fact that you probably don’t know the answer to these questions demonstrates the extreme importance for individual school districts to make the absolute safest decisions when it comes to operational issues such as routing and driver training and retention.

The bottom line is, are schools willing to put a $70,000 price tag on their student’s lives? Because the math equation handed down from Congress certainly doesn’t seem to add up.