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.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Lee introduced the following bill; which was read twice …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Safe Transit Accountability Act makes one focused change to federal transit safety law: it gives transit agency top executives the final say on safety decisions. Specifically, it grants the "accountable executive" at each transit agency (the person in charge of both safety and asset management plans) the power to accept or reject recommendations from their Safety Committee and to break any ties when the committee can't agree on safety issues.
Who Benefits and How
Transit agency executives and senior management benefit most from this bill. It gives them clear legal authority to make final decisions on safety matters, removing ambiguity about who's in charge when there are disputes. This reduces potential gridlock in decision-making and shields executives from criticism that they lack authority to override committee recommendations they disagree with.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Safety committee members see their influence reduced, as their recommendations become advisory rather than binding. Transit worker unions are particularly affected because safety committees often include union representation or consider worker safety concerns - this bill ensures management can override those recommendations. The bill shifts power away from collaborative safety decision-making toward executive control.
Key Provisions
- Amends 49 U.S.C. 5329(d)(5) to add new subsection on "Final decisionmaker"
- Grants accountable executives sole authority to decide whether to implement Safety Committee risk mitigation recommendations
- Designates accountable executives as sole tiebreakers in Safety Committee dispute resolution procedures
- Defines "accountable executive" as the single person with ultimate responsibility for both the Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and the Transit Asset Management Plan at each transit agency
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Establishes accountable executives as final decision-makers for transit safety committee recommendations and dispute resolution
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Resolve ambiguity in transit agency governance by establishing clear chain of command for safety decisions"
Likely Beneficiaries
- Transit agency management
- Transit agency accountable executives
Likely Burden Bearers
- Safety committee members whose recommendations can be overridden
- Labor unions representing transit workers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "recipient"
- → Public transportation agency receiving FTA funds
- "safety_committee"
- → Entity making safety recommendations to transit agencies
- "accountable_executive"
- → Single, identifiable person with ultimate responsibility for Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and Transit Asset Management Plan
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
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
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology