I
104TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4262
To save lives and prevent injuries to children in motor vehicles through
improved national, State, and local child passenger protection program.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEPTEMBER 27, 1996
Mrs. MORELLA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
A BILL
To save lives and prevent injuries to children in motor vehi-
cles through improved national, State, and local child
passenger protection program.
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 ‘‘Child Passenger Pro-
tection Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Annually the losses in the United States
from motor vehicle collisions is estimated to be over
800 deaths and over 80,000 injuries to children
through the age of 4.
(2) Properly used child restraints in motor vehi-
cles can reduce the chance of serious or fatal injury
in a motor vehicle collision by 69 percent for infants
and 47 percent for toddlers through the age of 4.
(3) Some of the most common seating position
designs that have emerged in motor vehicles during
the last decade make secure installation of child re-
straints difficult and, in some circumstances, impos-
sible.
(4) Results from regional child restraint clinics
have shown that 70 to 90 percent of child restraints
are improperly installed or otherwise misused largely
due to the complication and wide variation of seat
belt and child restraint designs.
(5) There is an immediate need to expand the
availability of national, State, and local child re-
straint education programs and supporting resources
and materials to help agencies and associated orga-
nizations to carry out effective public education in
child restraints.
SEC. 3. CHILD PASSENGER EDUCATION.
(a) AWARDS.—The Secretary may enter into con-
tracts or cooperative agreements with, and may make
grants to, State highway offices and other experienced
child passenger safety organizations to obtain and distrib-
ute national, State, and local child restraint education pro-
grams and supporting educational materials.
(b) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds provided under a con-
tract, cooperative agreement, or grant under subsection
(a) shall be used to implement child restraint programs
which are designed to prevent deaths and injuries to chil-
dren through the age of 4 and which—
(1) educate the public in all aspects of proper
installation of child restraints using standard seat
belt hardware, supplemental hardware and modifica-
tion devices where needed, and special installation
techniques;
(2) educate the public in appropriate child re-
straint design selection and placement and in har-
ness threading and harness adjustment; and
(3) train and retrain child passenger safety pro-
fessionals, police officers, fire and emergency medi-
cal personnel, and other educators in all aspects of
child restraint use.
(c) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—An entity which re-
ceives funds under a contract, cooperative agreement, or
grant under subsection (a) shall in carrying out subsection
(b)—
(1) use not more than 25 percent of such funds
on existing nationwide child restraint education pro-
grams;
(2) use not more than 25 percent of such funds
on existing State child restraint education programs;
and
(3) use at least 50 percent of such funds to im-
plement new national, State, and local child re-
straint education programs.
SEC. 4. APPLICATIONS AND REPORTS.
(a) APPLICATIONS.—An entity desiring a contract,
cooperative agreement, or grant under section 3(a) shall
submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in
such manner, and accompanied by such information as the
Secretary may reasonably require.
(b) REPORTS.—An entity which receives a contract,
cooperative agreement, or grant under section 3(a) shall
prepare and submit to the Secretary an annual report dur-
ing the period in which it receives funds under such con-
tract, cooperative agreement, or grant. Such a report shall
contain such information as the Secretary may require
and shall, at a minimum, describe the program activities
undertaken with such funds, including—
(1) any child restraint education program that
has been developed directly or indirectly by such en-
tity and the target population of such program;
(2) support materials for such a program that
have been obtained by such entity and the method
by which the entity distributed such materials; and
(3) any initiatives undertaken by such entity to
develop public-private partnerships to secure non-
Federal support for the development and distribu-
tion of child restraint education programs and mate-
rials.
SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.
The Secretary shall prepare and submit to the Con-
gress an annual report on the implementation of this Act
which includes a description of the programs undertaken
and materials developed and distributed by entities receiv-
ing funds under section 3(a).
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
For the purpose of carrying out section 3 of this Act,
there are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary
$7,500,000 for each of the fiscal years 1998 and 1999,
of which not more than $350,000 may be spent in any
fiscal year for administrative costs.
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.
For purposes of this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of Transportation;
(2) the term ‘‘child restraint education pro-
grams’’ includes publications, audiovisual presen-
tations, demonstrations, and computerized pro-
grams; and
(3) the term ‘‘State’’ means any State of the
United States, the District of Columbia, the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin
Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mar-
iana Islands, and any other territory or possession
of the United States.
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