H.R. 6747 (110th): Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2008

Introduced:
Jul 31, 2008 (110th Congress, 2007–2009)
Sponsor:
Rep. John Lewis [D-GA5]
Status:
Died (Referred to Committee)
See Instead:
This bill was re-introduced as H.R. 6441 (111th) on Nov 18, 2010.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.


7/31/2008--Introduced.
Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2008- Directs the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) to prescribe regulations requiring motorcoaches to be installed with: (1) safety seat belts at each seating position; (2) advanced glazing in each portal to prevent passenger ejection; (3) improved firefighting equipment; and (4) enhanced compartmentalization safety countermeasures and certain other motor vehicle safety features.
Requires the Secretary to complete, and report to Congress on, a study on improving bus crashworthiness, bus crash avoidance, and bus fire protection and passenger evacuation.
Amends federal transportation law to direct the Secretary to prescribe regulations: (1) requiring providers of motorcoach services registered with the the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to undergo periodic safety reviews; (2) establishing a training curriculum and providing certification for each driver of a motorcoach seeking a commercial driver's license (CDL) passenger endorsement; (3) improving CDL testing; (4) requiring a driver of a commercial motor vehicle that transports for compensation not fewer than 9 and not more than 15 passengers to have a CDL; (5) requiring a federal medical qualification certificate to be made a part of CDLs; (6) requiring the annual review of state licensing authorities to assess the accuracy of physical examination reports and medical certificates of CDL applicants that are submitted by medical examiners to such authorities; and (7) requiring that all commercial motor vehicles be equipped with electronic on-board recorders that record driver hours of service. Sets forth a deadline for the Secretary to establish the national registry of medical examiners.
Requires a state to carry out an annual commercial motor vehicle inspection program in order to receive a grant for the development or implementation of programs for improving motor carrier safety
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a tax credit for the purchase of qualified new motorcoaches and for the cost of improvements to existing motorcoaches to satisfy new federal safety requirements. Limits the amount of such credit to $45,000. Terminates such credit after 2026.
Directs the Secretary to develop and administer supplemental grants, not to exceed $20,000, for the cost of retrofitting motorcoaches to comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Limits eligibility for such grants to certain motorcoach operators who have a fleet of not more than 25 motorcoaches and have total annual revenues of less than $5 million.
Amends the Small Business Act to set forth loan and loan guarantee requirements for the motorcoach industry.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.


No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.

The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

Slip Laws

Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)