Tell your Members of Congress: Protect Funding for Clean School Buses!

Children across the nation rely on school buses to get to and from school. These buses, the majority of them diesel, hurt the health of kids and school drivers every day due to the toxic air pollutants they emit. To address this health issue, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program provided $5 billion over five years to replace old school buses with cleaner, healthier electric and low-emission buses.

But now, Congress is debating revoking the $2 billion previously allocated for the Clean School Bus Program through 2026. In addition, President Trump's executive orders directed the EPA to freeze clean school bus funding that had already been awarded.

Urge your members of Congress to keep the Clean School Bus Program in the budget package and demand the Trump administration release frozen funds for clean school bus funds. Don't forget to add a personal comment about why clean school buses in your hometown matters to you to make your message even more powerful.

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The Clean School Bus Program offers crucial economic and health benefits for our communities. School districts struggle to adequately fund school bus replacements, forcing bus fleets to run decades-old inefficient buses well past their expected retirement, adding burdensome maintenance and fuel costs. The exhaust from these old diesel buses is polluting the air in our neighborhoods and even inside the bus, harming students’ health.  This is a risk we can no longer accept for our schoolchildren and our communities. The CSBP serves as a critical source of funding for school systems to modernize and increase the safety and efficiency of the bus fleet.

Over 1,200 school districts across the country have benefited from the CSBP so far. However, the funding freeze after the program’s third round created a $900 million dollar gap in school district budgets across the country and no means to fill them. Additionally, there is still $2 billion left in the program to be awarded in 2025 and 2026, and the benefits to our kids' health cannot be denied.

Withholding this critical funding would require more kids to unnecessarily ride on older, dirtier buses and more school districts the burden of maintaining older, inefficient buses past their prime. Additionally, manufacturers such as Blue Bird in Georgia, Thomas Built in North Carolina, and GreenPower in West Virginia are counting on this clean school bus funding to continue increasing production.

As your reconciliation negotiations proceed, please keep the already-allocated $2.2 billion in funding for 2025-26 clean school buses available and as well as tax credits for clean school buses. Also, please see that the freeze on the already-obligated round 3 Clean School Bus Program funds is lifted and that all 530 public school districts who were granted awards are made whole.

Thank you.

Please protect the federal funding for clean school buses, which has already been allocated until 2026 through the EPA Clean School Bus Program (CSBP). Millions of children ride school buses each day and far too many of them are breathing in toxic diesel fumes every trip. The Clean School Bus Program offers crucial economic and health benefits for our communities. School districts struggle to adequately fund school bus replacements, forcing bus fleets to run decades-old inefficient buses well past their expected retirement, adding burdensome maintenance and fuel costs. The exhaust from these old diesel buses is polluting the air in our neighborhoods and even inside the bus, harming students’ health. This is a risk we can no longer accept for our schoolchildren and our communities. The CSBP serves as a critical source of funding for school systems to modernize and increase the safety and efficiency of the bus fleet. Over 1,200 school districts across the country have benefited from the CSBP so far. However, the funding freeze after the program’s third round created a $900 million dollar gap in school district budgets across the country and no means to fill them. Additionally, there is still $2 billion left in the program to be awarded in 2025 and 2026, and the benefits to our kids' health cannot be denied. Withholding this critical funding would require more kids to unnecessarily ride on older, dirtier buses and more school districts the burden of maintaining older, inefficient buses past their prime. Additionally, manufacturers such as Blue Bird in Georgia, Thomas Built in North Carolina, and GreenPower in West Virginia are counting on this clean school bus funding to continue increasing production. As your reconciliation negotiations proceed, please keep the already-allocated $2.2 billion in funding for 2025-26 clean school buses available and as well as tax credits for clean school buses. Also, please see that the freeze on the already-obligated round 3 Clean School Bus Program funds is lifted and that all 530 public school districts who were granted awards are made whole. Thank you.

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