Washington, DC- Today, I've written to the Congressional Conferees considering the NHTSA safety provisions of the transportation reauthorization bill, H.R. 3. State highway safety agencies are pleased Congress is nearing passage of this crucial legislation. However, we are concerned that Congress is moving toward promoting only national highway safety priorities, and not state needs. Specifically, GHSA is asking Congress to:

A) Support the House version of the Section 402 State and Community Highway Safety grant program .

This state-administered program is the "building block" of state highway safety efforts. Highway safety offices collect state and local crash data, use the data to identify state priorities and then set program goals that are then carefully evaluated. GHSA has serious concerns about the Senate version of H.R. 3 since it makes a radical change in this crucial program. This version requires states to provide satisfactory assurances that each state will "implement activities in support of national highway safety priorities and performance goals." State priorities are addressed only if state data shows that a national priority is not "a matter of significant concern in its jurisdiction." As an example, if a state is struggling with a highway safety problem such as distracted driving or speeding, the state may not be able to easily address this problem since those issues are not part of what the federal government considers national highway safety priorities. States must be allowed to continue highway safety programming based on their needs and data.

B) Support the House version of the Section 405 Occupant Protection Incentive Program.

The House version of this program provides funding to states that satisfy specific occupant protection criteria or achieve an eighty-five percent or greater safety belt usage rate. While this performance goal will be challenging to achieve given the current national use rate of eighty percent, GHSA supports this as an ambitious yet obtainable goal. States can use this funding to conduct the successful "Click it or Ticket" campaign that has caused safety belt use to increase in recent years. The Senate version of this program, however, completely alters the program by favoring states that enact primary belt laws or achieve extraordinarily high belt use (90 percent for two consecutive years). While the Senate version does provide grants to states that already have a safety belt law, those states would only receive half as much as states that had recently enacted this legislation. GHSA wonders why states that did the "right" thing on this issue long ago are being punished. Under the Senate program, GHSA estimates that only the 22 jurisdictions that have primary safety belt laws will currently qualify for funding. This means that 26 states that are presently receiving occupant protection funding to participate in " Click it or Ticket " will not receive any funding in the future. GHSA is deeply concerned how this change will affect the national safety belt use rate and fears that motor vehicle related injuries and fatalities will increase.

Lt. Colonel Champagnes's letter to the Congressional Conferees is posted at www.ghsa.org/html/media/pressreleases/2005/pdf/confereesletter_062005.pdf

###

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) is the nonprofit association representing the highway safety agencies of states, territories, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Indian Nation. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds and implement state highway safety plans. For more information, contact GHSA at (202) 789-0942 or visit www.ghsa.org.