A Senate committee on Thursday, Sept. 18, heard testimony on a bill introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, that would beef up safety standards in motor coaches, but it's unclear whether Congress will be able to pass the bill before it adjourns at the end of this month.

The hearing is the first step toward action on the bill, which was spurred in part by a March 2007 motor coach accident in Atlanta, Ga., that killed five members of the Bluffton University baseball team as well as the bus driver and his wife. John Betts, a Bryan man who lost his son in the crash, was among those who testified.

Brown said he and Hutchison are optimistic that the bill — which would require seat belts, window glazing and stronger roofs, among other safety precautions — could pass before Congress adjourns.

Opponents of the measure say it is too costly and that motor coaches are still one of the safer modes of transportation. But the bill itself received backing Thursday from the acting chair of the National Transportation Safety Board and the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Brown and Hutchison said such measures are overdue.

"You can't tell me putting seat belts on a bus is too costly," Hutchison said. "It does not wash."