Congress Drags Feet While Kids Breathe Polluted Air

Well, that's the results of studies done to analyze what precisely is being done to stop more than one third of the 390,000 diesel school busses in the U.S. that still need remediation from giving off toxic particulates that are making kids sick as they enter the bus through the doors windows, and occasional crack in its structure. In fact, a study done by the Clean Air Task Force in Boston that put electronic monitoring devices on kids backpacks before they got on the bus determined that the air inside can be up to 5 times more polluted than the air outside. And while some of the problems associated with it can be relatively minor such as wheezing, coughing, and headaches; other issues like an increased rate of asthma and lung cancer are most certainly not. And so what exactly is the holdup that's giving states such problems in getting the funding they need to actually retrofit the busses to make them safer? Well, it turns out that in 2005 the federal government passed a measurement ensuring $1Billion over 5 years to fix the problem, and they've yet to deliver. I say we take Congress on a "field trip" via school bus... Perchance the funding would magically appear soon after?