| |
| |
|
|
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
|
|
|
WHEREAS, Each day, more than 26 million students rely on |
|
|
school buses for safe transportation, and many school districts |
|
|
have experienced difficulty in keeping up with this demand due to |
|
|
federal licensing requirements that have exacerbated the shortage |
|
|
of school bus drivers; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, Part 383 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety |
|
|
Regulations requires school bus drivers to obtain a Commercial |
|
|
Driver's License, but the application process has included |
|
|
unnecessary obstacles to meeting this obligation; for example, the |
|
|
testing and training portions of the CDL application were |
|
|
previously handled by different third-party skills examiners, |
|
|
which limited applicants' ability to complete the exams if they did |
|
|
not have access to both a tester and a trainer; a recent change to |
|
|
this rule helps states streamline the process of obtaining a CDL by |
|
|
allowing the same examiner to both test and train an applicant, |
|
|
revealing that with less federal interference, states can license |
|
|
school bus drivers more efficiently; and |
|
|
WHEREAS, According to a survey conducted by School Bus Fleet |
|
|
Magazine, most school districts have endured some degree of bus |
|
|
driver shortage, and data from the National Association for Pupil |
|
|
Transportation reveals that many school districts consider CDL |
|
|
requirements to be a major factor in their ability to recruit and |
|
|
retain bus drivers; one Texas school district has successfully |
|
|
overcome its shortage, but only through costly training programs |
|
|
that compensate new drivers as they complete the CDL application; |
|
|
and |
|
|
WHEREAS, School districts that provide valuable |
|
|
transportation services are burdened by a flawed federal system |
|
|
with inefficient licensing requirements, and Congress should solve |
|
|
this problem by allowing states to establish regulations according |
|
|
to their own needs; now, therefore, be it |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas, |
|
|
3rd Called Session, hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the |
|
|
United States to pass legislation that would grant licensing |
|
|
authority for public school bus drivers to the states; and, be it |
|
|
further |
|
|
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
|
|
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to |
|
|
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of |
|
|
Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the |
|
|
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that |
|
|
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a |
|
|
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |