August 5, 2025
Mr. Smucker (for himself and Mr. Owens) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
To amend title 49, United States Code, to authorize the accountable executive of a safety committee to resolve disputes of the safety committee, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Safe Transit Accountability Act
.
Sec. 2. Safety committee
Section 5329(d)(5) of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
(C) Final decisionmaker
(i) In general
The accountable executive of a recipient shall determine whether to implement the risk-based mitigation or strategies recommended by the Safety Committee and shall serve as the sole tiebreaker of any Safety Committee dispute resolution procedures.
(ii) Accountable executive
In this subparagraph, the term
accountable executivemeans the single, identifiable person who has ultimate responsibility for carrying out the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan under this section of a transit agency, responsibility for carrying out the transit agency's Transit Asset Management Plan, and control or direction over the human and capital resources needed to develop and maintain both the transit agency's Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan, in accordance with this subsection, and the transit agency's Transit Asset Management Plan in accordance with section 5326.