Federal grant program funds school bus safety cameras to protect children
H.R. 7204 — School Bus Stop-Arm Safety Camera Act · Filed by Janelle Bynum (D-OR) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jan 22, 2026 · 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 directs the Department of Transportation to study stop-arm safety cameras on school buses and establish a federal grant program to help states and school districts purchase or install this technology. The cameras are designed to catch drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses, a major safety hazard for children.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a straightforward federal grant program to fund safety camera installation on school buses. It is a public-safety appropriations measure with no hidden provisions or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- The bill requires study of 'fee and revenue sharing structures' to make programs 'financially self-sustaining,' which may create pressure for school districts to monetize traffic violation data or partner with private enforcement vendors, potentially shifting costs to drivers.
- Data sharing with law enforcement for 'fair adjudication' of violations may expand automated traffic enforcement without explicit legislative debate on due process or appeal rights for drivers cited by camera.
- Grant eligibility limited to 'State educational agencies' may exclude private schools and rural districts that lack formal state agency status, creating uneven safety coverage.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill funds a public safety measure that directly protects children from a documented traffic hazard (illegal passing of stopped school buses). The grant program is transparent, targets public entities (state educational agencies), and includes requirements for privacy safeguards and data management oversight.
Who stands to gain
- school bus manufacturers
- camera and safety technology vendors
- traffic enforcement software providers
Named in the bill
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation (DOT), State educational agencies, Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jan 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 22, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Education…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $489,143 in lobbying spend. A filing names 69 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Janelle Bynum, the sponsor, reported $1,211,198 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters — $489,143 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 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 (2,459 characters) on Aug 21, 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal grant program funds school bus safety cameras to protect children” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr7204 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.