Report Undergoing Review,
Scheduled to be Made Public in October

CALGARY, Alberta (July 22, 2008) — At this writing, the national public school bus fleet vulnerability threat assessment was circulating through the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, but it won’t be made public until October. A 60-day window exists from the time of the report’s completion until it must be presented to Congress, per the Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 signed by President Bush last August.

While the contents of the report remained confidential, TSA was on hand at the NSTA Annual Convention in Calgary on July 19 and 21 to discuss the future relationship between the feds and the school bus industry. William Arrington, general manager of TSA’s Office of Highway and Motor Carrier, said the report’s findings will shape the course taken by the feds in formulating school bus safety and security measures.

While his office was completing similar assessments for the trucking and motorcoach industries (other public mass transit modes reside in a different office), Arrington added that special attention is being paid to the yellow school bus because of the sheer number of vehicles on the road during any given day and the more than 25 million students they transport. It’s a view shared by the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed a resolution in June recognizing the importance of the yellow school bus as a mode of mass transit.