Currently, Idaho code is generic when it comes to the color of a school bus, describing the hue simply as “school bus chrome.”

That wording isn’t current with federal code — which describes bus color in more vivid bureaucratic terms. “National school bus glossy yellow, federal standard 595a, color number 13432,” to be precise.

So the Legislature may be asked to look at a bill to bring the state’s definition in line with the feds’ definition.

Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, presented such a bill to the Senate Education Committee Tuesday afternoon, at the request of Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger.

But the bill hit a snag in wording.

According to the bill’s “statement of purpose,” its shorthand summary, no buses would need to be repainted in order to comply with the new wording. That may be the case for schools, since Idaho school buses are already adorned in the federally required paint color, regardless of how that color is now defined in state code.

But the bill also keeps language on the books the requires districts to repaint a bus before selling it off to a private party.

So that left Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, and other committee members wanting the wording cleared up.

Goedde agreed to hold the bill to give it a rewrite: the legislative equivalent of a fresh coat of paint.