I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3253 
To study and improve the air quality inside school buses, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 12, 2005 
Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Mr. OWENS, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. STARK, and Mr. 
LIPINSKI) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined 
by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To study and improve the air quality inside school buses, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Healthy School Bus 
Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Although air pollution is a health hazard for 
people of all ages, children are potentially more vul-
nerable because their lungs are still developing and 
they breathe 50 percent more air per pound of body 
weight than adults. 
(2) Diesel exhaust is considered to be a prob-
able human carcinogen by the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency and the World Health Organization 
and contains a high concentration of fine particles 
and 40 compounds that are listed as hazardous air 
pollutants by the California Environmental Protec-
tion Agency. 
(3) Fine particles from diesel exhaust have been 
implicated as a potential cause of heart disease, res-
piratory disease, and stroke. 
(4) Diesel exhaust aggravates asthma, a disease 
that affects approximately 4.5 million American chil-
dren in kindergarten through twelfth grade. 
(5) Nearly 24 million children in the United 
States spend an average of an hour and a half each 
day in a school bus. 
(6) Because of the protection school buses pro-
vide in the event of a crash, they are the safest way 
for children to travel to school.
(7) The Environmental Protection Agency’s 
Clean School Bus USA program, designed to help 
school districts replace aging bus fleets or install 
pollution control equipment, received nearly $60 mil-
lion in proposals, but could only award $10 million 
in grants. 
(8) Recent studies have indicated that the con-
centration of diesel exhaust inside a school bus can 
be considerably higher than in the ambient environ-
ment, and that some, if not most, of that pollution 
may be coming from the bus itself. 
(9) Although activities designed to curtail emis-
sions from the tailpipes of school buses appear to 
have a positive effect on the air quality inside the 
bus cabin, it is not clear how pollution enters the 
cabin or what the best strategies are for combating 
such pollution. 
SEC. 3. STUDY OF AIR QUALITY INSIDE SCHOOL BUSES. 
(a) STUDY.—The Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency shall— 
(1) conduct a study on the air quality inside 
school buses; and 
(2) not later than 12 months after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, submit a report to the 
Congress on the results of such study.
(b) STRATEGIES.—The Administrator of the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency shall— 
(1) develop strategies for improving the air 
quality inside school buses; 
(2) conduct or support research to evaluate the 
effectiveness of such strategies; and 
(3) not later than 15 months after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, submit a report to the 
Congress describing such strategies and the results 
of such research. 
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated $750,000 to carry out this 
section. 
SEC. 4. ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR CLEAN SCHOOL BUS 
USA PROGRAM. 
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Admin-
istrator 
of 
the 
Environmental 
Protection 
Agency 
$55,000,000 for fiscal year 2006 and each subsequent fis-
cal year to carry out activities, including expansion of the 
Clean School Bus USA program, to reduce the amount 
of air pollution emitted by school buses and to improve 
the air quality inside of school buses. 
SEC. 5. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of the Congress that local educational 
agencies and schools—
(1) should assign less polluting buses to the 
longest school bus routes; and 
(2) should adopt and implement policies to de-
crease school bus idling. 
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