It’s commonsense legislation, and we’re proud to support it.
New bipartisan legislation would stop companies with ties to “foreign entities of concern,” including China, from receiving federal tax dollars to build new school buses.
Federal funds are already prohibited from going to Chinese state-owned and supported companies to manufacture public transit vehicles like rail cars and buses. But a loophole in the law means that federal money can still go to these companies to make school buses — and considering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already spent $3 billion to replace the nation’s gas-powered school bus fleet with electric models, closing that loophole is a pressing concern.
Enter the Secure School Buses Act, introduced on Wednesday by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.).
“It is unacceptable for adversarial nations to receive any benefit at the expense of American taxpayers,” Cornyn said. “This bill would prohibit federal dollars from going to subsidiaries and spin-offs of predatory entities in China and other countries of concern that don’t have our interests at heart, and I’m glad to support it.”
The EPA received $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to replace existing school buses with electric and zero-emission models. But when the agency began implementing the Clean School Bus Program in 2022, it opted to not apply the Build America, Buy America Act to the program, a move we criticized at the time.
As a result, when the EPA awards federal taxpayer money to local entities to purchase new electric and zero emission school buses, there are no guardrails ensuring that funding doesn’t go to benefit companies with CCP ties. And as the Senators note, “some of these companies [are] marketing buses specifically for the Clean School Bus Program.”
Not only is that a bad use of taxpayer dollars — why is the United States handing taxpayer money to Chinese state-owned and supported companies instead of reinvesting it in our own manufacturers? — it’s also a big security risk to allow our top geopolitical adversary to manufacture the vehicles that transport our kids to school every day.
It was national security concerns, after all, that Members of Congress cited when they passed the Transit Infrastructure Vehicle Security Act (TIVSA), effectively keeping companies with CCP ties from getting federal money to make rail cars and buses. Blackburn, meanwhile, also has worked alongside Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) to probe Chinese auto companies about their ties to the CCP.
As the Senators put it: “If these products are not safe enough for public transit, they certainly are not safe enough for our nation’s children.”
The Alliance for American Manufacturing is a supporter of the Secure School Buses Act alongside Heritage Action — not exactly a group that we typically align with. But that goes to show the commonsense nature of this legislation, and we encourage Congress to put it into law.
“The Clean School Bus Program has provided school districts in Arizona and throughout the country opportunities to modernize their school bus fleets, while supporting bus manufacturers based here in the United States,” Kelly said. “This bill ensures companies that receive state support from the Chinese government can’t take advantage of this program to unfairly compete against American manufacturers. We’ve taken these same steps to protect public transit systems, and now it’s time we apply the same standard to the buses carrying our kids to school every day.”
Added Baldwin: “When we use taxpayer dollars, we should be investing those dollars back into American businesses, workers, and communities – not sending money overseas to adversaries like China. I’m proud to work with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to ensure taxpayer investments in our children’s school buses won’t line the pockets of bad actors like China and give them a competitive edge over our workers and businesses.”