Congress orders DOT to study three-point seat belts for school buses
S. 3806 — SECURES Act of 2026 · Filed by Cory Booker (D-NJ) · Introduced Feb 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Secretary of Transportation to issue a proposed rule within 180 days establishing new federal seat belt standards for all new school buses, regardless of size. The rule must consider lap/shoulder belt systems, NTSB safety findings, prior NHTSA statements favoring three-point belts, innovative detection and reminder systems, and state experience with school bus seat belts.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a procedural mandate requiring DOT to initiate a rulemaking process on school bus seat belt safety standards. It is a straightforward public-safety measure with no hidden provisions or private carve-outs.
What the text implies
- The bill does not mandate adoption of lap/shoulder belts—it only requires DOT to propose a rule and consider specified factors. Final standards may differ from the safety evidence cited, and implementation timelines remain uncertain.
- School bus manufacturers and retrofit suppliers may face compliance costs if stricter standards are adopted, though these costs are not addressed in the bill and would be determined during the rulemaking process.
- The bill's reference to 'innovative approaches' to seat belt detection and reminder systems may create market opportunities for safety technology vendors, though no direct subsidy or preference is stated.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
School children and their families gain potential access to improved safety restraints (lap/shoulder belts) on school buses, based on established NTSB and NHTSA safety evidence. The bill imposes no cost on citizens and creates a transparent rulemaking process to evaluate and potentially implement a protective standard.
Who stands to gain
- school bus manufacturers (potential compliance costs, but also potential market for new safety equip
- safety technology vendors (seat belt detection and reminder system suppliers)
Named in the bill
Secretary of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Mark Rosekind (former NHTSA Administrator, cited for prior statement), school bus manufacturers, states with existing school bus seat belt requirements
Where it stands
- Feb 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 9, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”
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 $60,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 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.
Cory Booker, the sponsor, reported $496,300 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National School Transportation Association — $60,000 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 (1,464 characters) on Aug 24, 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.
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