Investing in A New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this en bloc amendment and encourage support for my amendment to require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to study and issue a report on the safety effects of ensuring school buses are equipped with air-conditioning.

I represent rural desert cities like Palm Springs and Coachella in California's 36th Congressional District, where, for much of the year, the temperatures are really hot and well into the triple digits, sometimes reaching 125, 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet many school busses do not have air-conditioning, causing children to arrive at school in sweat-soaked T-shirts, dehydrated, and with heat exhaustion.

Last fall, I wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to take action. This amendment would provide them needed data to help protect students' health and safety while riding on school buses without AC in extreme heat.

The Moving Forward Act contains robust improvements for school bus safety in rural and urban areas, and my amendment would strengthen that. I urge support for this en bloc amendment and for H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act.

I thank the chair.

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