Supporting the goals and ideals of School Bus Safety Week.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me this time and for managing this resolution and for his comments, as well as those of our distinguished colleague from Missouri.

Mr. Speaker, last October, I introduced House Resolution 498, which supports the goals and ideals promoted by School Bus Safety Week. This bill certainly has bipartisan support with 62 cosponsors. Also, all three national school bus associations are in support of this resolution: the National Association of Pupil Transportation, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation, and the National School Transportation Association.

America's 480,000 school buses comprise the largest mass transportation fleet in the country, 2\1/2\ times the size of all other forms of mass transportation, transit, intercity buses, commercial airlines, and rail combined.

During the school year, school buses make more than 50 million passenger trips daily. School Bus Safety Week, which is celebrated in more than 40 States and sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was created to remind all students of the best ways to get on and off the bus and of other ways to enhance the safety of our Nation's children.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, an average of 820 students are killed annually during school transportation hours, but less than 2 percent of them are school bus passengers. Most of those killed are children aged 5 to 7, and most often those children are killed in the area immediately surrounding the bus, either by a passing vehicle or occasionally by the bus itself.

While school bus transportation is eight times safer than traveling in a passenger vehicle and is the safest form of ground transportation available, unfortunately, accidents still happen. An average of seven school-age passengers are killed in school bus crashes each year, and an average of 19 children are killed getting on and off the bus each year.

Many of our communities honor School Bus Safety Week through local and State poster and speech contests, lessons utilized in School Bus Safety Community Awareness kits and other activities built around themes that raise awareness of school bus safety issues.

It is my hope that our children will be safer than ever before, and that our children will safely get on and off and travel on these school buses each day, and that drivers in our communities will be mindful of the laws designed to protect our Nation's school bus passengers.

This is a business dominated by individuals and very small businesses. Most school bus drivers are stay-at-home moms, retired people or others who need some part-time income. They do a really outstanding job and provide a great community service in helping keep our school children safe, and H. Res. 498 will help promote and improve that safety even further.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 498) supporting the goals and ideals of School Bus Safety Week.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 498 offered by the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan). This resolution would support the goals and ideals of a National School Bus Safety Week.

In our Nation, approximately 22.5 million children ride school buses to and from school each day, which accounts for 54 percent of all students attending grade school. In fact, the more than 440,000 public school buses travel approximately 5 billion miles each year, comprising the largest mass transportation fleet in the country, 2\1/2\ times the size of all other forms of mass transportation, and according to statistics, representing the safest form of highway transportation.

Even so, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, each year for the past 11 years, an average of 35 school-age children have died in school bus-related traffic accidents. This is why it is vital that drivers, mechanics and supervisors, as well as parents and children, observe certain rules and regulations pertaining to all the operations of school bus safety.

The week of October 15 through October 21 will educate children around the country about school bus safety precautions with special activities such as poster contests to help bring the valuable information to our Nation's children.

I urge all Members to come together to encourage the educational importance of a School Bus Safety Week by adopting H. Res. 498.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to my distinguished colleague, the Congressman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan).

Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support the adoption of H. Res. 498, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, students are at a much greater risk while traveling to and from school than at any other time during their school day. During the 1997-98 school year, about 800 children from the ages of 5 through 18 were killed during normal school transportation hours, while traveling by passenger car, foot, bicycle, public transportation or school bus. Although school buses are the safest form of highway transportation, they are not fail-safe.

The most dangerous part of the school bus ride is getting on and off the school bus. Fatalities that occur when students board and exit school buses account for approximately three times as many school bus- related fatalities than for fatalities that occur when the school buses are occupied. The area around the bus when the bus is loading and unloading is called the danger zone. The danger zone is comprised of the areas outside of the bus where the children are in the most danger of not being seen by the driver. It is the 10 feet in front of the bus where the driver is too high to see a child, 10-foot-long blind spots that run along both sides of the bus, and the area behind the school bus.

The goal of National School Bus Safety Week is to ensure safe, efficient, economical and high-quality transportation for school children on their trips to and from school and school-related activities. This is certainly a goal we all can support, and I urge my colleagues to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues, Mr. Marchant of Texas and as well as Mr. Duncan of Tennessee, and urge a favorable vote of passage of the School Bus Safety Week. I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to cast vote on the following legislative measures on July 17 and July 18. If I was present for rollcall votes for the following bills:

375 On motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended H. Res. 3085--To amend the National Trails System Act to update the feasibility and suitability study originally prepared for the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and provide for the inclusion of new trail segments, land components, and campgrounds associated with that trail, and for other purposes.

376 On motion to suspend the rules and pass, as amended H. Res. 3496--To amend the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969 to authorize additional Federal contributions for maintaining and improving the transit system of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and for other purposes

377 On motion to suspend the rules and pass as amended H. Res. 3729--Federal Judiciary Emergency Tolling Act

378 On passage H.J. Res. 88--Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage

379 On motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 3504--Fetus Farming Prohibition Act

380 On motion to suspend the rules and pass S. 2754--Alternative Pluripotene Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act

381 On motion to suspend the rules and agree H. Res. 498--Supporting the goals and ideals of School Bus Safety Week

I would have voted ``yeas'' on Nos. 375, 376, 377, 379, 381.

I would have voted ``nays'' on Nos. 378, 380.