Federal highway funds sweeten the deal for states hiring school-safety coordinators
H.R. 3931 — Kids on the Go Act of 2025 · Filed by Hillary Scholten (D-MI) · 15 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 11, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends federal highway funding rules to reward states that hire a dedicated 'safe routes to school' coordinator. If a state employs such a coordinator, the federal government will cover 95% of eligible project costs instead of the standard share, effectively reducing the state's financial burden for safe-routes-to-school infrastructure and programs.
Why we flagged it
The bill uses federal cost-share adjustment as a policy lever to encourage state hiring of safety coordinators. It is a straightforward incentive mechanism tied to a public-health objective (safe routes to school), not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- States without existing safe-routes-to-school programs may need to establish new administrative capacity to hire and manage a coordinator, creating upfront costs that could deter participation in lower-capacity or lower-income states.
- The 95% federal share is higher than typical federal highway funding ratios, which may create pressure on the federal highway trust fund or require reallocation from other transportation priorities.
- The bill does not define 'coordinator' qualifications, duties, or oversight standards, leaving implementation details to states and potentially creating variation in program quality and effectiveness.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill incentivizes states to hire dedicated coordinators for safe routes to school, which typically support pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, traffic safety education, and programs that help children walk or bike to school safely. Higher federal funding reduces state budget pressure and makes these public-health and safety investments more affordable, benefiting families and children directly.
Who stands to gain
- state and local governments (reduced project costs)
- construction and engineering firms (increased project volume if states pursue more safe-routes proje
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Transportation, State transportation departments, Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Where it stands
15 cosponsors: 12 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Jun 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $400,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Hillary Scholten, the sponsor, reported $769,940 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Heart Association — $400,000 on 1 filing
- Safe Routes to School National Partnership — $0 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (493 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal highway funds sweeten the deal for states hiring school-safety coordinators” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3931 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.