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Last year Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, cosponsored an amendment that would have added $825 million to a transportation bill to fund positive train control. Investigators say had positive train control been implemented, the deadly Amtrak crash earlier this week would likely have been averted.

Pingree made the following statement in arguing for the funding during an Appropriations Committee hearing last year. 

"In the Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008 Congress mandated that Positive Train Control be in place for approximately 70,000 miles of intercity or commuter passenger rail and Class one freight rail systems by 2015. After that law was enacted, the NTSB took Positive Train Control off its top ten list.But, NTSB added it back last year, after it became clear that the PTC will not be in place by 2015.
 
This is partly due to a failure on the part of Congress. The bill that put the 2015 deadline in place also created a railroad safety technology grant fund, and authorized funding for 50 million dollars in grants in each fiscal year between 2009 and 2013. But the fund received its authorized appropriation only once, in the FY2010 T-Hud Bill."