Transportation Security Administration to Hold Regional Meetings in September

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 23, 2008) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted last week that “special attention” must be paid to school buses in a national vulnerability assessment of the nation’s transportation system to be completed this summer.

The Transportation Safety Administration, which must present its full report to Congress in early August per the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, has been working in recent months with school administrators, state and local law enforcement and other school transportation representatives on developing methods to keep children safe from terrorist attack. House Resolution 1150 passed on June 18 reiterates this by stating that school buses transport more than twice as many passengers each school day than all other modes of mass transit and rail combined — 25 million students on school buses compared to 11.3 million total transit riders. Of the latter figure, the American Public Transportation Association studies show approximately 10 to 15 percent are primary or secondary students.

During subcommittee hearings in May, Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-NC) was responsible for adding the school bus-specific language to H.R. 1150, which was sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee's (D-TX).

Etheridge and Rep. Bernie Thompson (D-MS), both members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, castigated TSA earlier this year for not making timely progress on its assessment of the school bus fleet. Since, school bus representatives have seen a marked increase in communication from TSA including meetings in Little Rock, Ark., at the National Exhibition on Transporting Students with Disabilities and Preschoolers and on Capitol Hill during the National School Transportation Association's annual spring board meeting and federal lobbying event.

In addition to a joint security conference presented with the FBI next month in New York City, TSA also announced two upcoming regional conferences with HMC Company, the new federal contractor selected to run the Highway Watch program, though it remained unclear its exact relationship with the related School Bus Watch program. Those meetings are scheduled for Sept. 4 and 5 in Nashville, Tenn., and Sept. 25 and 26 in Reno, Nev.