Reported by Elizabeth Elkind for Fox News
The House of Representatives is charging ahead with discussions on how to bolster trust in public transit after the deadly stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, N.C.
A panel of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is holding a closed-door roundtable with federal transit officials, as well as law enforcement and union representatives on Thursday, Fox News Digital has learned.
It’s being led by Highways and Transit subcommittee chair Rep. David Rouzer, R-N.C., who represents the state where the stabbing occurred.”The recent deadly stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail is a stark reminder safety must be at the center of our national transit conversation,” Rouzer told Fox News Digital. Lawmakers said they are hoping to hear directly from officials on strategies to mitigate crime on public transit systems. While public transportation has already been under the committee’s purview, the tragic killing of Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte last month is fueling new urgency for House lawmakers on the panel.
The Thursday roundtable is directly tied to that incident, Fox News Digital is told.
Among the participants expected are Federal Transit Administration leader Marc Molinaro, who is a former House lawmaker, as well as American Public Transportation Association President Paul Skoutelas, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Greg Regan and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) CEO Randy Clarke.
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