At the National School Transportation Association (NSTA)'s annual Capitol Hill Bus-In in Washington, D.C., March 26-28, 2025, the group announced the formal introduction of one of its top legislative initiatives, the Driving Forward Act by Rep. John Carter (TX-31). 

NSTA previously identified the under-the-hood testing requirement to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) as a significant barrier to entry for potential school bus drivers. NSTA Advocacy Team efforts have ranged from emergency waivers to exemption applications, and now the issue has once again reached the halls of Congress in bill form.

The Driving Forward Act was previously introduced in the United States House of Representatives during the 118th Congress (H.R. 8041), by Rep. Carter, and he has reintroduced the bill in the 119th Congress (2025-2026), as H.R.2360. This would permanently extend the exemption from the engine compartment portion of the pre-trip vehicle inspection skills testing requirement for school bus drivers and for other purposes. 

In addition to Carter, Rep. Tom Cole (OK-4), Rep. Jason Smith (MO-8), Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-5), Rep. David Valadao (CA-22), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), and Rep. Keith Self (TX-3) joined as original co-sponsors. Carter touted the introduction of the measure at the NSTA Capitol Hill Recap Reception & Dinner on March 26.

A Senate version of the legislation, sponsored by Senators Cornyn (R-TX), Baldwin (D-WI), Blackburn (R-TN), Kelly (D-AZ) and Gillibrand (D-NY), was introduced as S. 1284 on April 3, 2025.

The origins of the under-the-hood exemption stems from a letter drafted by NSTA executive director Curt Macysyn in 2021 and sent to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) highlighting the barrier to entry that the under-the-hood portion of the CDL exam was causing. A meeting with senior FMCSA staff resulted in three 90-day emergency waivers, which waived the under-the-hood testing requirement in states that chose to adopt the waiver. 

Ultimately, NSTA petitioned for a five-year exemption, believing that it would result in more widespread adoption. In November 2022, the FMCSA announced a two-year exemption from the under-the-hood testing requirement.

Since the initial waivers granted beginning on January 3, 2022, and continuing through the first two-year exemption, 13 states have adopted the exemption: Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. 

Overall, the exemption has seen almost 1,300 school bus drivers licensed utilizing it, resulting in nearly 64,500 students who can be transported to school through the initiative.

The data used in this calculation was acquired through various state sources that NSTA has partnered with. NSTA used this momentum to push Congress to reintroduce the Driving Forward Act in the 119th Congress. The newly introduced measure also states that “for the six-year period beginning on the date of enactment of this act, the Secretary of Transportation shall require any state that participates in the exemption described in subsection (a) to submit to the secretary an annual report for each those six years describing the number of drivers that obtain a commercial drivers’ license under such exemption.” NSTA hopes to use this data to demonstrate the widespread success of this initiative.

As NSTA members walked the halls of Capitol Hill at the 2025 NSTA Capitol Hill Bus-In, the Advocacy Team was working with Senators John Cornyn (TX) and Tammy Baldwin (WI) to become prime sponsors on a Senate version of the bill that was introduced on April 3, 2025. Lobbying on this key piece of legislation was a focal point at the bus-in. As a result of 153 meetings on Capitol Hill, several new co-sponsors signed on to the initiative, and more are expected in the coming weeks.

“In Washington, NSTA once again demonstrated the strength of its lobbying program with a record number of attendees, and volume of Congressional meetings. The path to getting an under-the-hood testing exemption for school bus drivers has been a long journey, but with the introduction of the Driving Forward Act in both the House and Senate, we are poised to achieve final success in our quest to attract more school bus drivers to the profession,” Macysyn said.