Rick Larsen: “Mr. Speaker, today we bring to the floor H.R. 691, a bill to extend the child passenger protection education program and…”

“Mr. Speaker, today we bring to the floor H.R. 691, a bill to extend the child passenger protection education program and preserve our Nation's most precious resource, our children. H.R. 691 authorizes $7.5 million from the general fund for each of the fiscal years 2002 and 2003, to make incentive grants to States to implement child passenger protection programs. Unlike other TEA-21 programs, the child passenger protection education grant program expires at the end of 2001. H.R. 691 extends the program to 2003, consistent with the authorization period for other TEA-21 programs. The objective of the bill and the program it authorizes is to prevent deaths and injuries to children, educate the public concerning the proper installation of proper restraints, and train child passenger safety personnel concerning child restraint use. Every day children sustain injuries or die in motor vehicle crashes. In 1999, more than 1,100 children under the age of 10 were killed in motor vehicle crashes and another 182,000 were injured.”