Bus safety gets Senate attention this week

A Senate panel will examine bus safety in a hearing this week after two Northeast bus crashes killed more than 15 people.
 
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's Surface Transportation subcommittee will hold a hearing titled "Ensuring the Safety of Our Nation's Motorcoach Passengers."

Subcommittee Chairman Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said it was time for Congress to enact legislation to make passenger buses safer.
 
"The tragic series of bus crashes in New Jersey and the Northeast have exposed serious weaknesses in the safety of our nation’s bus system,” Lautenberg said in a statement last week.

“Just because bus companies discount prices doesn’t mean they can discount safety. This hearing will examine current bus safety practices and explore additional areas where we can improve protections for passengers,” he said.
 
Lautenberg has drawn support from the ranking Republican on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. Hutchison has called for requiring seatbelts on buses.
 
“Beginning on Jan. 1, 1968, a revolutionary new safety device designed to protect passengers in high-speed collisions was required in every automobile sold in America,” Hutchison wrote. “That device was a seatbelt. But the groundbreaking law requiring seatbelts for U.S. passenger vehicles had one exception: buses.”
 
Also next week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) will speak to the Washington AeroClub as his committee prepares to take up a long-term Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. The deadline for amendments to the bill has been set for Tuesday at 3 p.m.
 
Elsewhere, the Senate Agriculture Committee will evaluate how farming techniques can ease the burden of high gas prices on the cost of food.
 
Additionally, representatives from the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston will be in the Washington area to meet with NASA officials as an announcement on where three retiring space shuttles will be housed looms on April 12.