In light of the one-year anniversary on June 23 of the D.C. Metro crash that killed nine people, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee has approved draft legislation allowing the federal government to set safety standards for local transit. In the wake of the crash last summer and the discovery of deficiencies in safety oversight at Metro, the Obama administration called for federal oversight of subway and light rail systems. Currently, the Federal Transit Authority (FTA) lacks the authority to impose safety standards for public transit.

The centerpiece of the Public Transportation Safety Act of 2010, authored by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and others, is to provide the FTA with the power to set safety standards for state transit safety oversight programs and to withhold federal transit funds if the state fails to meet these federal standards. The bill also creates an Office of Safety and Security within the FTA, which would handle the training of state safety inspectors as well as to gather data reports from state transit agencies.